Part 1 — Shooting & Raw Processing

Part 2 — Assembling in After Effects

Part 3 — Color Grading and Filtering Timelapse Scenes

This week’s show is a triple feature… we tackle three areas of the photo industry that are hot topics. First up, Scott Bourne interviews Rich Harrington about how to get started in DSLR video. Rich Harrington then takes the microphone and talks to Terry White from Adobe about changes at Adobe as well as Terry’s photography. Our third segment, Melissa Niu interviews Matt Kloskowski of Kelby Training to find out about how the photo industry is evolving.

How much light does your camera see? The aperture of your camera is its portal to the light in your scene (and without light, there are no pictures or video). Controlling the aperture is essential to getting the right amount of light on to your camera’s sensor to capture the best shots.There’s another side to aperture as well. As you open the aperture wider, you can narrow the depth of field in your shot, blurring more of the frame outside of your immediate focus area. This is often a hallmark of the “DSLR video” look. Mastering aperture is critical to high-quality video and photos.This week we cover

What is aperture? Learn why the aperture is critical to good exposure, and how to access it on your lens.

A DP’s perspective on aperture Catch up with director of photography Jim Ball and learn how he uses aperture when shooting in different situations.

Adjusting the aperture Learn how to make adjustments to the settings on your camera to get the best results.

Real-world examples We’ll evaluate several shots, breaking down what worked and what didn’t.

This tutorial is a single movie from the Premiere Pro Guru: Dynamic Link and the Adobe Workflow course presented by lynda.com author Rich Harrington. The complete course is 1 hour and 29 minutes and shows how to save time, save disc space, and get more billable work done using Dynamic Link--the Adobe technology that allows you to use files from other Adobe apps inside your Premiere Pro projects.

In this tutorial find out how to work with slow-motion effects in Premiere Pro. Watch more at http://www.lynda.com/Premiere-Pro-tut....
This tutorial is a single movie from the Premiere Pro Guru: Dynamic Link and the Adobe Workflow course presented by lynda.com author Rich Harrington. The complete course is 1 hour and 29 minutes and shows how to save time, save disk space, and get more billable work done using Dynamic Link--the Adobe technology that allows you to use files from other Adobe apps inside your Premiere Pro projects.

When it comes to capturing great images, exposure is critical. Under- or overexpose your shot and you lose precious details. But setting the proper exposure isn’t easy; your light may move behind a cloud, or change over time. When shooting video, exposure requires an almost scientific understanding of light.In this week’s DSLR Video Tips, we’ll show you a straightforward way to get strong, well-exposed shots. You’ll learn about

Exposing for video — What is the desired goal when exposing for video and when does it look “right”?

Balancing the exposure triangle – Learn how to balance the shutter speed, ISO, and aperture of the camera. It’s critical to get the right mix for both technical and artistic reasons.

Evaluating the settings – We’ll look through several shots, and break down what worked—and what didn’t

When reading video scopes for the first time, it can be tough to figure out what you’re actually looking at. But tools like waveform monitors and vectorscopes can help with the exposure and color in your shots—and are definitely worth the time spent learning how to use them.The primary thing to keep in mind is that these tools are more accurate than your eyes in providing an objective, analytical snapshot of your video signal. This week we’ll explore

Why scopes are essential in helping you achieve better shots

How a histogram complements the information on a waveform monitor

How to use a waveform monitor to judge exposure and contrast

How to use a vectorscope to analyze hues and saturation in a shot

Learning how to use both a waveform monitor and vectorscope can really aid you in getting beautiful shots that are properly exposed, and with vibrant, consistent color. Be sure to check out both the sample video below, and this week’s complete episode on lynda.com to learn how you can use them with your own projects.

A common phrase among DSLR pros is that “everything looks good on the back of the camera LCD.” While intended as a joke, the phrase really means that it’s hard to judge aspects of your shot like critical focus, color, and exposure using the LCD on the back of a DSLR camera. As these LCDs are generally very small, it can also be difficult for on-set clients and team members (like a focus puller) to clearly see what the camera is actually shooting.

That’s where field monitors come in. Over the past few years, lightweight field monitors offering flexible connectivity, high-resolution large screens, and extensive features have become more affordable. This week, we’ll explore the benefits of using a field monitor, including

· What a field monitor is, and how it helps you in the field
· How to connect a field monitor to your camera
· Using peaking or focus in red to assist in getting sharp focus
· Using zebra patterns and color assist options to get proper exposure
· Passing the video signal thru a field monitor to other devices, like an electric viewfinder (EVF) or larger client monitor.

Field monitors can immediately improve the quality of your shots, so be sure to check out the episode to learn how you can use them in your own shooting workflow. And remember, each week’s DSLR Video Tips episode is free for seven days, so be sure to tell all your video and photography friends to watch it this week.Often you’ll only have one chance to get interview audio right, so check out this week’s episode so you’ll be prepared before your next shoot. Remember, each week’s episode is free for seven days–tell your video and photography friends to watch for free.Follow Me on Twitter or Facebook

This specific tutorial is from the DSLR Video Tips series presented by lynda.com authors Rich Harrington and Robbie Carman. The complete DSLR Video Tips course is presented as a weekly lynda.com series and covers the most common questions videographers encounter when shooting and editing with DSLR (digital single-lens reflex) cameras, from choosing a frame size and frame rate to understanding moiré. This digital video tutorial looks at one of the reasons the audio recorded with your DSLR sounds so bad: it might be your mic. Watch more at http://www.lynda.com/course-tutorials....

Learn how to speed up time and create compelling visual effects with time-lapse photography. Join Rich Harrington in the field as he captures nature's patterns at Red Rock Canyon in southwestern Nevada, and shows how to frame your scene and choose the proper camera settings. He'll show you how to capture great images, whether you're using a DSLR camera and a motorized slider or just a smartphone you have handy. Then join him back in the studio to transform your still footage into a storytelling time-lapse video, using tools like Photoshop, Premiere Pro, and Final Cut Pro.

Having clear, crisp audio tracks is essential for effective corporate videos, commercials, documentaries—and particularly critical for interview footage. Audiences are often willing to forgive small technical mistakes with video, but far less so with problematic audio.This week we’ll set up to shoot an interview, and look at ways to improve audio recording quality on location. It’s easy to focus solely on capturing great visuals while shooting an interview; but audio that’s hard to hear, distorted, or runs together between interviewer and subject can quickly ruin a production–and possibly even require a reshoot. To help you capture the best audio with interview footage, this week we’ll discuss:

Why good audio is essential to an interview

How to place microphones for the best results

Best practices for positioning the interviewee, interviewer, and crew

Interview techniques including making your subject comfortable, having questions prepared, and not talking over your subject’s answers

Often you’ll only have one chance to get interview audio right, so check out this week’s episode so you’ll be prepared before your next shoot. Remember, each week’s episode is free for seven days–tell your video and photography friends to watch for free.

This specific tutorial is from the DSLR Video Tips series presented by lynda.com authors Rich Harrington and Robbie Carman. The complete DSLR Video Tips course is presented as a weekly lynda.com series and covers the most common questions videographers encounter when shooting and editing with DSLR (digital single-lens reflex) cameras, from choosing a frame size and frame rate to understanding moiré. This tutorial discusses which frame rate you should choose, depending on your specific requirements. Watch more at http://www.lynda.com/course-tutorials...

Out in the field, you’ll often find yourself in a situation where the nicest-looking shot is extremely backlit. For example, an office interview scene with bright windows behind the subject can create a challenging shooting situation. The problem with strongly backlit shots is that they make it difficult for your audience to focus on what you want them to: your subject! Worse yet, you might not even realize how backlit your shot is until you begin the postproduction process.This week, we’ll take a look at fixing a backlit shot from a recent music video shoot. Although it can seem that backlit footage is impossible to fix, we’ll show you some powerful tools and techniques to add to your toolkit that can help, including:

Understanding what backlighting is

Using scopes to verify your exposure, and detect a backlit shot

Using Masks in Adobe SpeedGrade CC to compensate for backlighting

Working with Tiffen’s Dfx plugins to relight and add texture to backgrounds

Be sure to check out this week’s episode so you’ll be prepared to fix any backlit shots that come up in your productions. And remember, each week’s episode is free for seven days, so invite your video and photography friends to check it out.

In this tutorial, Rich Harrington and Robbie Carman explain how to bring footage into Premiere Pro from a card. Watch more at http://www.lynda.com/course-tutorials....
This specific tutorial is from the DSLR Video Tips series presented by lynda.com authors Rich Harrington and Robbie Carman. The complete DSLR Video Tips course is presented as a weekly lynda.com series and covers the most common questions videographers encounter when shooting and editing with DSLR (digital single-lens reflex) cameras, from choosing a frame size and frame rate to understanding moiré.

On this week’s episode of DSLR Video Tips, we look at techniques to control exposure and depth of field when shooting under bright light conditions. Outdoor lighting can be too much for a camera, so it’s important to master the exposure triangle—the critical relationship between shutter speed, aperture, and film speed (ISO). Join us as we head back out on a real-world music video shoot for musician Jason Masi, and discuss ways to achieve total control over your focus and exposure when natural lighting is in abundance:

Use a neutral density (ND) filter to knock down exposure.

Use a loupe to magnify the image on your camera’s LCD screen and knock out stray light, making it much easier to achieve critical focus and exposure.

Use a variable ND filter to dial in the perfect exposure.

Use a matte box to hold filters and block lens flares.

Check out this episode so you’ll be ready for your next production. Remember, each week’s episode is free for seven days, so tell all your video and photography friends to watch.Watch the entire DSLR Video Tips Series

In this tutorial, Rich Harrington and Robbie Carman explain how to get shallow depth of field with a prime lens. Watch more at http://www.lynda.com/course-tutorials....
This specific tutorial is from the DSLR Video Tips series presented by lynda.com authors Rich Harrington and Robbie Carman. The complete DSLR Video Tips course is presented as a weekly lynda.com series and covers the most common questions videographers encounter when shooting and editing with DSLR (digital single-lens reflex) cameras, from choosing a frame size and frame rate to understanding moiré.

On this week’s episode of DSLR Video Tips, we look at a key aspect of getting great-looking shots: critical focus. Join us as we head back out on a real-world music video shoot for musician Jason Masi, and discuss time-saving techniques for achieving critical focus:

“Punch in” on a shot in LiveView mode to achieve sharp focus.

Use a loupe or viewfinder to magnify the image on your camera’s LCD screen, making it much easier to achieve critical focus.

Use autofocus to quickly lock in focus prior to recording.

Take a look at the benefits of using a field monitor, as well as an electronic viewfinder, to aid in focus. A bigger or higher resolution screen can be a huge help in getting sharp focus.

Adjust aperture to help locking focus.

Achieving critical focus is essential to creating beautiful shots. Check out this episode so you’ll be ready for your next production.

Remember, each week’s episode is free for seven days–so tell all your video and photography friends to check it out.Interested in more?

While White Balance presets and Auto White Balance can be quite useful, many choose to manually set the white balance on their cameras. This is a useful approach if you need to compensate for when multiple lighting sources are mixed together in the same scene. It is also a way to warm or cool a shot for stylistic purposes.

If you want to work numerically, you can use these numbers in degrees Kelvin as a guide.

1,700K Match flame

1,850K Candle flame

2,700–3,300K Incandescent lightbulb

3,400K Studio lamps

4,100K Moonlight

5,000K Horizon daylight

5,500–6,000K Typical daylight, electronic flash

6,500K Daylight, overcast

If memorizing a bunch of temperatures is too difficult or you aren’t happy with a built-in preset, it’s time to make your own preset. The exact process will vary from camera to camera, but typically the process involves doing the following.

Shoot a reference photo with something white in the shot. The white should fill most of the frame.

The subject can be a sheet of paper or a more accurate calibration target.

Choose the custom white balance option in your camera’s menu.

Select the reference image so the camera can calibrate itself.

Take a few more photos under the lighting conditions used to make the preset.

Visually inspect the preset’s result and ensure that skin tones and key details in the shot look natural.

A key factor to keep in mind when shooting outdoors is the position of the sun. In this tutorial find out how to calculate the sun's position in order to plan for your shoot. Find out more about the app here for iTunes and here for Android.Interested in more?

On this week’s episode of DSLR Video Tips, we’ll look at a piece of gear called a follow focus that makes it easier to get repeatable, sharp focus. We’ll examine how a follow focus works, and techniques for using one in the field.

Learn the benefits of using a follow focus, the essential parts of a follow focus system, and how to put one together.

Learn how to set up marks for your talent, as well as marks on the follow focus—so that you can quickly repeat focus as objects or people move through the scene.

Our special guest Kevin Bradley shares his techniques for operating follow focus, and Robbie tries his hand at the task of “focus puller.”

After the shoot, we’ll head back to the studio to take a look at the results and discuss how the follow focus helped us, and what we could have done better.

A follow focus is a great addition to any DSLR filmmaker’s kit, and it can help you get consistent, reproducible focus. Join us and learn more as we head into the field on a real-world music video shoot for musician Jason Masi.Remember, each week’s episode is free for seven days–so tell all your video and photography friends to check it out.Interested in more?

The White Balance setting on your camera is one of the most important choices to make. This control can be used to neutralize any color cast in an image and to set the overall color (or tone) for the scene. White is most often used as a reference point because it is the perfect blend of all the color channels.

While many are perfectly content to shoot in an Auto White Balance setting… this can lead to extra work in post. Changes in lighting conditions (such as clouds passing overhead) can create variations in skin tones or subjects that just end up being frustrating. Ideally, strongly consider setting your white balance correctly before shooting in a location. If shooting raw, you have greater flexibility to compensate in post.

The presets for your camera may vary slightly depending on the model and manufacturer. However, they’re usually easy to understand when you think about them. Typically, the presets are named for the type of lighting they are designed to work best with.

Daylight or Direct Sunlight. This option works best for general shooting under daylight conditions where the sun is readily visible.

Shade. This option is used when shooting in sunlight and your subjects are in the shade. It tends to make the image more orange to compensate for the bluish tones of the shaded areas.

Cloudy. This setting is similar to daylight but compensates for the sky having some cloud cover (which cools down the color temperature). Many prefer this setting because it is a little warmer.

Tungsten or Incandescent. This white balance setting is designed for shooting indoors with standard lightbulb illumination.

Fluorescent. This setting works best when shooting under standard fluorescent tube lights. However, some lights are daylight balanced, which would require you to switch to the daylight setting.

Flash. This option is designed to be color balanced for your camera’s flash. You won’t use this option when shooting video because you can’t use a flash.

Be sure to experiment with your settings as well as apply your own judgement to get the best results.Check out Photofocus for more photo news and inspiration.

Have you checked out the new and enhanced DSLR Video Tips series? Rich Harrington and Robbie Carman head out into the field weekly to explore practical tips for all levels of shooters. In this week’s episode, we tackle shooting in small places. You’ll learn how we get great shots where there’s very little room to fit a crew.

Learn how to use small lights to shoot in small places. LED lighting along with batteries pull off great light inside a car.

We walk through how to use wide-angle lenses to shoot in small places. Learn how affordable prime lenses can open up a scene to fit more action. We also demo how a GoPro camera can give you more options for shooting in tight quarters.

We’ll look at options to mount cameras to windows and smooth surfaces, including mini tripods and GorillaPods for positioning cameras into cracks and gaps.

Learn how to use an ad hoc Wi-Fi network to control cameras wirelessly. We’ll also show one of our favorite new tools—the CamRanger—for adjusting, focusing, and controlling a DSLR with an iPad.

After the shoot, we’ll look at the raw results, straight from the camera. You’ll see what worked, what didn’t, and how to improve the shot next time.

We’ve got a bunch of great stuff as we go out into the field. We’re joined by special guest Kevin Bradley, and take you onto a real-world shoot behind the scenes of a music video for musician Jason Masi.Remember, each week’s episode is free for 7 days. So tell all your video and photography friends to check it out, and try the show for free.Interested in more?

In this tutorial, Rich Harrington and Robbie Carman explain how to sync sound with PluralEyes. Watch more at http://www.lynda.com/course-tutorials....
This specific tutorial is from the DSLR Video Tips series presented by lynda.com authors Rich Harrington and Robbie Carman. The complete DSLR Video Tips course is presented as a weekly lynda.com series and covers the most common questions videographers encounter when shooting and editing with DSLR (digital single-lens reflex) cameras, from choosing a frame size and frame rate to understanding moiré.

Robbie Carman and I head into the field in the new season of the DSLR Video Tips series presented by lynda.com. The complete DSLR Video Tips course is presented as a weekly lynda.com series and covers the most common questions videographers and photographers encounter when shooting and editing with DSLR cameras. Each week's episode is free to view the week it is released.

I've had a lot of people ask me how to properly expose a DSLR camera when shooting video. It seems a bit tricky since you really need to shoot in Manual mode to get the best results. Here's a video I recorded for the DPBestflow project which may help you.

In this tutorial, Rich Harrington and Robbie Carman explain how to import footage from a card into Final Cut Pro X. Watch more at http://www.lynda.com/course-tutorials....
This specific tutorial is from the DSLR Video Tips series presented by lynda.com authors Rich Harrington and Robbie Carman. The complete DSLR Video Tips course is presented as a weekly lynda.com series and covers the most common questions videographers encounter when shooting and editing with DSLR (digital single-lens reflex) cameras, from choosing a frame size and frame rate to understanding moiré.

Watch more at http://www.lynda.com/course-tutorials.... In this tutorial, Rich Harrington and Robbie Carman discuss tools like Y adapters, which move attachments to your camera's hot shoe just slightly off center, which results in better sound and video capture results.
This specific tutorial is from the DSLR Video Tips series presented by lynda.com authors Rich Harrington and Robbie Carman. The complete DSLR Video Tips course is presented as a weekly lynda.com series and covers the most common questions videographers encounter when shooting and editing with DSLR (digital single-lens reflex) cameras, from choosing a frame size and frame rate to understanding moiré.

In this tutorial, Rich Harrington and Robbie Carman explain how to set up a DSLR camera for slow-motion shoots. Watch more at http://www.lynda.com/course-tutorials....
This specific tutorial is from the DSLR Video Tips series presented by lynda.com authors Rich Harrington and Robbie Carman. The complete DSLR Video Tips course is presented as a weekly lynda.com series and covers the most common questions videographers encounter when shooting and editing with DSLR (digital single-lens reflex) cameras, from choosing a frame size and frame rate to understanding moiré.

In this tutorial, Rich Harrington and Robbie Carman explain how to get shallow depth of field with a prime lens. Watch more at http://www.lynda.com/course-tutorials....
This specific tutorial is from the DSLR Video Tips series presented by lynda.com authors Rich Harrington and Robbie Carman. The complete DSLR Video Tips course is presented as a weekly lynda.com series and covers the most common questions videographers encounter when shooting and editing with DSLR (digital single-lens reflex) cameras, from choosing a frame size and frame rate to understanding moiré.

When shooting video with a DSLR, audio is often recorded separately to another source. I show you how to sync that audio to your video in post-production (Adobe Premiere Pro). From the extensive DPBestflow site I highly recommend.

I explain the problems of a rolling shutter when shooting video with a DSLR, and how to make sure that fast moving subjects aren't distorted or jittery. From the extensive DPBestflow site I highly recommend.

Here is a recording from the Tiffen Webinar I did. We discussed working with Variable ND Filters, Reflectors, LED lights, Portable Lights, and More. Get production techniques as well as postproduction tips for digital effects to enhance the lighting (or even relight) during the edit.

Watch more at http://www.lynda.com/course-tutorials.... In this tutorial, Rich Harrington and Robbie Carman explain how to store photo cards using card wallets.
This specific tutorial is from the DSLR Video Tips series presented by lynda.com authors Rich Harrington and Robbie Carman. The complete DSLR Video Tips course is presented as a weekly lynda.com series and covers the most common questions videographers encounter when shooting and editing with DSLR (digital single-lens reflex) cameras, from choosing a frame size and frame rate to understanding moiré.

In this tutorial, Rich Harrington and Robbie Carman explain how to get shallow depth of field with a prime lens. Watch more at http://www.lynda.com/course-tutorials....
This specific tutorial is from the DSLR Video Tips series presented by lynda.com authors Rich Harrington and Robbie Carman. The complete DSLR Video Tips course is presented as a weekly lynda.com series and covers the most common questions videographers encounter when shooting and editing with DSLR (digital single-lens reflex) cameras, from choosing a frame size and frame rate to understanding moiré.

Adorama Photography TV Presents DSLR | Video Skills with Rich Harrington. In the last episode of this three-part series, Rich continues with the all-RAW workflow in post-production.
Join him as he shares some tips on how to enhance your new time-lapse video using filters, adjustment layers, and blending modes in Adobe After Effects.

Adorama Photography TV Presents DSLR | Video Skills with Rich Harrington. In the second episode of this three-part series, we continue with the all-RAW workflow in post-production.

Join Rich as he shares some tips on how to develop and finesse the RAW files using Adobe After Effects. He will show you techniques such as adjusting the scale of the files before using Bezier handles for creative looking movement.

Adorama Photography TV Presents DSLR | Video Skills with Rich Harrington. Join Rich in the first episode of this three-part series about creating a professional time-lapse video using an all-RAW workflow.
In this episode, Rich shares some clips from his trip to Panama and explains how he overcame the obstacles of shooting a time-lapse in a crowd of tourists. Then, watch as he begins the post-production workflow by processing the images in Adobe Camera RAW.

Watch more at http://www.lynda.com/course-tutorials.... This tutorial explores DSLR recording time limits and scenarios where a time limit might affect a shoot.
This specific tutorial is from the DSLR Video Tips series presented by lynda.com authors Rich Harrington and Robbie Carman. The complete DSLR Video Tips course is presented as a weekly lynda.com series and covers the most common questions videographers encounter when shooting and editing with DSLR (digital single-lens reflex) cameras, from choosing a frame size and frame rate to understanding moiré.

Creative Color Grading – Fast! Learn how to approach color grading tasks from production to post. Learn important techniques about what to shoot in the field including camera profile, white balance information, and essential metadata. Then in post you'll learn how to create popular looks that clients want. This workshop will explore both general techniques and theory as well as a detailed look at Tiffen Dfx Video/Film tool set.

Each attendee will receive a 15 day trial as well as a special discount on the software.

One lucky attendee with receive a give-away of a full license of the software

When it comes time to edit your video, the hard drives you use are going to have a huge impact on the performance of your system. No matter how much RAM you have or how powerful a video card, you won’t get real-time performance if your drives are a bottleneck.

Important factors

There are three factors when choosing a disk for video editing:

Speed: The speed of drive is the most important factor in determining what media you can play off it. Drives like internal laptop drives or bus-powered USB drives are generally not fast enough to edit HD video.

Capacity: When you start to edit HD video, you’ll quickly use up disk space. For example, each minute of video shot on a Canon 5D Mark II is about 320MB. In order to get the storage you need, you may invest in multiple drives or drives that are striped together for a performance RAID.

Redundancy: To avoid losing their video footage, most video creators choose to back up to two or more drives or to use additional methods like Blu-ray Disc. Look at redundant drives (such as RAIDs)

Drive technology

Be sure to consider your options when looking at hard drives.

Internal drive solutions: Many computers support multiple drive slots. Consider placing a fast SATA drive internally into your computer as a performance disk. Keep it only as a scratch disk and avoid installing application or system files on it.

External and portable drive solutions: Several different drives are available once you’ve maximized your internal storage. You’ll find both single- and multiple-drive solutions. Look for units offering connections like FireWire, USB3, or eSATA.

Networked RAIDs: Several professional drives allow multiple users to connect simultaneously. These solutions are important if you work in a multiple editor environment and need to share projects or assets.

Watch more at http://www.lynda.com/course-tutorials.... In this tutorial, Rich Harrington and Robbie Carman discuss the benefits of the Canon 6D, including affordability, enhanced low-light shooting, and built-in wifi and GPS capabilities.
This specific tutorial is from the DSLR Video Tips series presented by lynda.com authors Rich Harrington and Robbie Carman. The complete DSLR Video Tips course is presented as a weekly lynda.com series and covers the most common questions videographers encounter when shooting and editing with DSLR (digital single-lens reflex) cameras, from choosing a frame size and frame rate to understanding moiré.

While visiting the National Association of Broadcasters Conference in Vegas, Adobe had a huge booth. At it, they showed the next generation of their video products (such as Adobe Premiere Pro, After Effects, and SpeedGrade). While they didn't promise a release date, the likelihood was definitely stated as "soon." which should mean major updates to all their tools can't be far behind.If you want to see a detailed overview of Adobe Premiere Pro — check out my class on Lynda.Adobe offered a special deal that is only good for a few days. Save 40% off a year of Creative Cloud (which drops it to $29 a month). This offer can be used by anyone (even if you don't own a qualifying upgrade product). I strongly suspect this will be the best deal offered this year.Remember, a few key facts about Creative Cloud.

You get every Adobe Creative software tool. Adobe Premiere Pro, After Effects, Photoshop, Prelude, SpeedGrade, Encore, Story and more.

You get tools like Digital Publishing Studio, Acrobat, and Muse for creating apps, PDFs, and websites.

You always have the latest version installed on your drive. These do not run in the cloud, the apps are local just like before.

You get 20GB of Cloud storage and other cloud benefits that keep rolling out.

You get a professional Behance account to build portfolios and search for jobs.

You get updates sooner with no need to wait.

So if you're sitting on the fence, consider the offer. It expires April 19.

Adorama Photography TV Presents DSLR | Video Skills with Rich Harrington. Join Rich in the first episode of this three-part series about creating a professional time-lapse video using an all-RAW workflow. In this episode, Rich shares some clips from his trip to Panama and explains how he overcame the obstacles of shooting a time-lapse in a crowd of tourists. Then, watch as he begins the post-production workflow by processing the images in Adobe Camera RAW.
Related Episodes:
Time-lapse Gear: DSLR | Video Skills
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4ke-3...
Time-Lapse: Organizing: DSLR | Video Skills
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRtSwu...
Time-Lapse: Developing: DSLR | Video Skills
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVPpFw...

In this episode Adorama TV host, Rich Harrington visits the Blackmagic Design booth at NAB to speak with Stuart Ashton about some hot new products.
The Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera with 13 stops of dynamic range, Super 16 sensor, MFT lenses with ProRes and RAW recording is available for pre-order now at adorama.com
http://www.adorama.com/VDBMCCP.html
Also available for pre-order is the Blackmagic Production Camera 4K. A high resolution 4K digital film camera with large Super 35 sensor and global shutter for 4K and Ultra HD production.
http://www.adorama.com/VDBMCC4K.html

It hasn’t happened to me in a LONG time, but I did get asked the other day by a fellow photographer about recovering pictures from a memory card after an accidental reformat. There’s a great tool that I’ve used int the past that can pull back photos from the grave called Klix.The following issues can be solved:

Deleted images

Reformatted memory cards

Corrupted memory cards (often cause by sudden loss of camera power)

The tool works on all types of cards and can recover photos or video (as long as you haven’t written a file to that new place on a memory card). The following card types are supported. It really works well and I’ve used it to recover gigabytes of data with no hitches. The best thing is the try before you buy. You can download the demo and scan your cards… if the demo version sees the pictures it can recover them. File this away for that disaster moment when you realize you’ve blown away a picture (or even a whole shoot) accidentally.For $20 this is a good insurance policy… you can get more info or the trialhere.

Coming to NAB? Adorama is giving away some great cameras at NAB. Sign up online and visit the Adorama Booth (C7412) at NAB 2013 for a chance to win a Blackmagic Cinema Camera, Sony PMW-200 or Canon C100. Three lucky NAB 2013 attendees will walk away with the hottest new cinema cameras on the market: the Blackmagic Cinema Camera, the Sony PMW-200 or the Canon C100.

“We are really looking forward to this year’s NAB show. In addition to raffling off some amazing prizes, we’ll be showcasing a full range of pro video camera solutions at our booth, with gear for everyone from the weekend hobbyist to the 24/7 professional,” says Abby Hessney, marketing manager at Adorama. “Plus, Adorama specialists will be onsite to answer any production and postproduction questions attendees may have. If that’s not what someone’s looking for at NAB, they can still drop in and power up their phones and other electronics at our special NAB charging station – and who doesn’t need that?”

How to Win?

Each day of NAB through Wednesday, Adorama will be raffling off one of three high-end cinema cameras. Every evening at 5pm, a lucky NAB attendee will win one of the three following prizes:

Blackmagic Cinema Camera: Elegant, sophisticated and jam-packed with the latest digital cinema technology, Blackmagic Cinema Camera gives work that timeless feature film look. Blackmagic Cinema Camera features an amazing 2.5K image sensor with a wide 13 stops of dynamic range for a true digital film camera.

Canon C100: Endowed with a rich Cinema EOS feature-set and optimized for one-person operation, the C100 is a full 1920x1080 digital video camera that's compatible with Canon's entire range of EF Cinema and EF-lenses. Equipped with the Super 35mm Canon 8.3 Megapixel CMOS image sensor and revolutionary Canon DV III processor, the C100 is a highly mobile, compact professional camera ideal for those seeking operational convenience and exceptional HD imagery.

Rules of the Adorama Great Giveaway Sweepstakes

To participate in Adorama’s NAB Great Giveaway Sweepstakes, contestants must register online and visit the Adorama booth (C7412) during NAB 2013, which is held in Las Vegas, NV from April 8 through 11. Participants must visit the Adorama booth between 9am and 4:45pm to check in for the drawing and pick up their raffle ticket. The drawing schedule is as follows:

Monday, April 8th, 5pm: Blackmagic Cinema Camera

Tuesday, April 9th, 5pm: Sony PMW-200

Wednesday, April 10th, 5pm: Canon C100

Participants must be present during the drawings to win. To register for the contest, please visit the Sweepstakes link. One raffle ticket is good for all three days of Adorama’s Great Giveaway Sweepstakes.

I'll be teaching a free workshop in New York City on Time-lapse Photography (sponsored by Drobo).Getting Started with Time-lapse Photography and Keeping Those Thousands of Images Safe Sponsored by DroboTuesday, March 12, 2013 | 4:00 PM - 6:00 PMSign up here

Event Type: Photography, Software

Skill Level: Intermediate

Speakers: Richard Harrington

Here's the official description of the event:DSLRs can produce amazing photos and video… but how about compelling video created from hundreds of still images? In this seminar you’ll learn how to create dynamic time-lapse video and use photographic techniques to achieve amazing dynamic range and super high resolution. Rich finds that time-lapse is a great creative outlet that almost any photographer can learn in just a few hours.You'll learn the whole process from shoot to post… with an emphasis on speed and practicality. You’ll learn how the addition of a simple intervalometer to your existing DSLR kit can open up all new creative outlets. No expensive gear to get started, just a clear path and streamlined workflow. You'll also learn Rich's data management approach from field to studio to keep all those images safe. Finally, put the images together with popular tools like Photoshop, Premiere Pro, or Final Cut Pro.Sign up here

I'm teaching a two-part Time-Lapse & Panoramic Photography Workshop at the NAB show. Join me for a classroom tutorial and hands-on afternoon field trip to Red Rock Park where you will capture shots of the park and sunset. Attendees will learn the best practices and techniques for shooting time-lapse video and panoramic photography in one of the most scenic settings in the country. Space is limited.

DSLRs can produce amazing photos and video… but how about compelling video created from hundreds of still images? In this seminar you’ll learn how to create dynamic time-lapse video and use photographic techniques to achieve amazing dynamic range and super high resolution. Rich finds that time-lapse is a great creative outlet that almost any photographer can learn in just a few hours.

You'll learn the whole process from shoot to post… with an emphasis on speed and practicality. You’ll learn how the addition of a simple intervalometer to your existing DSLR kit can open up all new creative outlets. No expensive gear to get started, just a clear path and streamlined workflow. You'll also learn Rich's data management approach from field to studio to keep all those images safe. Finally, put the images together with popular tools like Photoshop, Premiere Pro, or Final Cut Pro. You can register for free here

The following is from a new project I'm involved in called The Power To Create.Join us this week, as we go on location with rising country music star Tyler Toliver. Have you ever wondered how music videos are created? In this episode, Host Richard Harrington and special guest, Director of Photography, Kevin Bradley will take you behind the scenes of a multi-camera set. From camera selection to lighting, you will learn the tools to produce a multi-camera music video.

In this show you’ll learn:

The tools needed to set up a multi-camera production.

Why it is beneficial to use a multi-camera setup.

The importance of capturing audio from multiple sources.

The advantages and disadvantages of using zoom lenses and prime lenses.

How to use fog and practical elements to add depth to your scene.

How to have a cost effective multi-camera setup.

How to manage footage securely on set.

Be sure to subscribe today (iTunes or YouTube) to not miss the next free episode.

We'll be back with episodes on editing in Adobe Premiere Pro and Final Cut Pro soon.

Adorama Photography TV Presents DSLR | Video Skills with Rich Harrington. Now that Rich has explored the sync sound workflow and production process in earlier episodes, it's now time to bring the processed material into Final Cut Pro X and line them up.

Watch as he takes you through the different ways of synchronizing and also how to use popular programs, such as Plural Eyes, for those high volume projects.

You probably know I have a ton of classes over at Lynda.com on photography, video, and business. What you may not realize is that you can try them all for free (or even watch them all if you want to give up bad network TV for a week or so). Over at my photo blog (Photofocus) we have a unique offer. Get TEN free days of Lynda.com with a membership trial. That deal is available know where else. Here's a direct link.

The fine print:You’ll get 10 days of free unlimited access to lynda.com. We’ll ask for your billing information, but you won’t be charged unless you continue with a paid membership after the trial. Your membership will include access to all 1,601 lynda.com courses. Choose a premium membership for downloadable exercise files that let you work along with the instructors.

I'm super excited to be speaking at the official Adobe conference this year…. Adobe MAX.

To start things off, don't miss my shooting pre-conference session.

Shooting and Editing Footage from DSLR Cameras The use of DSLR cameras to shoot video has skyrocketed. Learn from Photoshop and Adobe Premiere Pro Certified Instructor Rich Harrington as he introduces you to DSLR shooting and helps you put all the pieces together in post-production using Adobe’s powerful software.

This all-day lab will:

Introduce you to the entire process of shooting DSLR videos

Teach you important planning and shooting techniques

Show you how to edit and stabilize footage and make it look better in Adobe Premiere Pro and Photoshop

Watch more at http://www.lynda.com/course-tutorials/DSLR-Video-Tips-Rich-Harrington/103707-.... This digital video tutorial explains how to use an iOS or Android device as a dedicated digital audio recorder with the help of a few different apps.
This specific tutorial is from the DSLR Video Tips series presented by lynda.com authors Rich Harrington and Robbie Carman. The complete DSLR Video Tips course is presented as a weekly lynda.com series and covers the most common questions videographers encounter when shooting and editing with DSLR (digital single-lens reflex) cameras, from choosing a frame size and frame rate to understanding moiré.

My DSLR | Video Skills podcast brought to you by AdoramaTV is now available on iTunes. It's a totally free show that gives you free video tips on how to make better looking videos, time-lapse, and more. There are about 3 new episodes a month, but you can get all the back episodes and every new one with a FREE subscription. Visit iTunes to download it right now.

I am honored to have been invited to guest lecture at Skip Cohen University. This event is a great opportunity to learn from top pros in an intimate location. You get a ton of direct interaction with both the faculty and the students. The first program: a day-and-a-half live workshop and launch event in Las Vegas, March 8-9. Registration information and extra details are here.

Skip Cohen University’s team, or “faculty,” as it were, include Dean of the Wedding School: Clay Blackmore; Dean of the Portrait School: Matthew Jordan Smith; Dean of Video/Fusion: Rich Harrington; Dean of Marketing: Scott Bourne; Dean of Students: Michele Celentano, and more to be announced.In case you're not familiar with Skip, let me say he is one of the most knowledgable and generous educators in the photo industry. A few career highlights.

Former President of Hasselblad USA

Past President/Chief Operating Officer of Rangefinder Publishing Inc.

Current President/Founder of Marketing Essentials International and the Photo Resource Hub

Ran Rangefinder Magazine, After Capture Magazine, the Wedding and Portrait Photographers International Association and the WPPI Convention and Trade Show

Vice President of the Photographic Manufacturer’s and Distributor’s Association

Author of six photography books

Some of you may have heard of his great event called Skip Cohen’s summer school. The event has now expanded in both dates and scope. I highly recommend you keep an eye on this event and consider attending.

"We’ve decided to do something radical. We’re going to go back to basics. To human handshakes, telephone calls, meetings that happen face-to-face in a room full of people who share a passion for photography. If you want to learn, you need a variety of tools – including hands-on education with outstanding instructors who know how to teach and can give you the time you need to develop your skills. Sure, we’ll do stuff online. We’ll offer webinars, blog posts and podcasts, Google Hangouts and more. But there will always be humans behind everything we offer, and a chance to interact with them in real life. You need a network of vendors and associates who help you through those challenges you face in growing your skills and business. You need the ability to customize your own program in order to grow at your own pace without waiting in lines, dealing with crowded giant ballroom programs and never feeling the intimacy of building new friendships with your peers and instructors. Welcome to Skip Cohen University."

The key to a great green screen is a combination of how you shoot and how you post process your material. In this episode join Rich as he shows you how all these pieces come together when keying in editing software, such as Final Cut Pro X.

Adorama Photography TV Presents DSLR | Video Skills with Rich Harrington. In earlier episodes Rich showed you some great gear to use and the best field work flow when shooting sync sound. Join Rich again in this episode as he shares the post-production process for the final edit in Adobe Premiere Pro.

Watch as he takes you through the steps to use Premiere's built-in method of syncing sound. Then, follow along as he explains a way to use popular programs, such as Plural Eyes, for those high volume projects.

This digital video tutorial explains why your exposure changes when you zoom: cheaper lenses have variable f-stops. Watch more at http://www.lynda.com/course-tutorials/DSLR-Video-Tips-Rich-Harrington/103707-....
This specific tutorial is from the DSLR Video Tips series presented by lynda.com authors Rich Harrington and Robbie Carman. The complete DSLR Video Tips course is presented as a weekly lynda.com series and covers the most common questions videographers encounter when shooting and editing with DSLR (digital single-lens reflex) cameras, from choosing a frame size and frame rate to understanding moiré.

Watch more at http://www.lynda.com/After-Effects-tutorials/Green-Screen-Techniques-Video-Ph.... This green screen tutorial shows how to use a light meter to measure your luminance levels, set your shutter speed, and refine your lighting setup.
This tutorial is a single movie from the Green Screen Techniques for Video and Photography course presented by lynda.com authors Rich Harrington and Abba Shapiro. The complete course is 3 hours and 16 minutes long and walks you through the process of hanging and lighting the backdrop; positioning your subject; and completing the scene with postproduction techniques in Adobe After Effects, Photoshop, and Premiere Pro.
Introduction
1. An Introduction to Green Screen
2. Prepping the Green Screen
3. Lighting the Subject
4. Working with the Subject
5. Best Shooting Practices for DSLR Video
6. Background Selection
7. Creating Backgrounds in a Nonlinear Editing Tool
8. Creating the Composite for Motion
Conclusion

Adorama Photography TV Presents DSLR | Video Skills with Rich Harrington. In this episode, Rich will reveal how to get slow motion effects with over cranking in a DSLR camera.

Join Rich out in the field as he shoots some basketball players with his DSLR camera using different frame rate options. Then, follow along back in the studio where you will see how the different shots are created by using Adobe Premiere and After Effects.

Adorama Photography TV Presents DSLR | Video Skills with Rich Harrington. This episode will reveal how to choose the proper frame rate and frame size when shooting with a DSLR video camera.
Follow Rich as he explains the difference between frame sizes and frame rates and which is appropriate for different shooting scenarios. Then, watch as he takes you into a DSLR camera menu and shows you how to choose your frame size and rate.

This digital video tutorial explains how to get your audio recorders set up to record at the right levles. Watch more at http://www.lynda.com/course-tutorials/DSLR-Video-Tips-Rich-Harrington/103707-....
This specific tutorial is from the DSLR Video Tips series presented by lynda.com authors Rich Harrington and Robbie Carman. The complete DSLR Video Tips course is presented as a weekly lynda.com series and covers the most common questions videographers encounter when shooting and editing with DSLR (digital single-lens reflex) cameras, from choosing a frame size and frame rate to understanding moiré.

Adorama Photography TV Presents DSLR | Video Skills with Rich Harrington. Join Rich as he reveals great tips and techniques on how to achieve a good interview. From establishing a proper relationship with your subject, to eye-line, feedback, and how to ask follow-up questions, Rich will sit down with filmmaker Irene Magafan to talk about her newest documentary.

Adorama Photography TV presents the Canon EOS-6D Digital SLR. Adorama TV host Rich Harrington gets his hands on a Canon 6D. He takes it out for a long day of shooting under different conditions in Las Vegas (including a bunch of lowlight shooting). A full review is coming shortly, but we wanted you do see what the Canon 6D can do.

As you make the switch to Adobe® Premiere Pro, you'll find many ways to get things done. What you may miss are some hidden gems you don’t know to look for. In this fast paced webinar, join Richard Harrington as he shares the advanced techniques that will speed up your workflow. This webinar is designed for experienced editors who want to jump in and get results. You'll learn at a rapid fire pace and get easy to implement time savers to boost your productivity.

Topics covered include

Project and sequence setup

The Media Browser plus linking and interpreting media

Interpreting RED .r3d Files after the shoot

Analyzing footage and searching speech to text translations or transcripts

If want to check focus, you need to take a few extra steps. Just turning on the LCD and glancing at it won’t cut it. The small screen makes everything look more in focus because it can’t show you all the pixels at once. The reduced image size creates the illusion of a sharper image.If you want to really see what is in focus, you’ll need to zoom, and then zoom some more. If you’re using a zoom lens, zoom in as tight as possible on your subject. Zooming in on an area like the eyes works well; a button on a shirt works well too. You’ll then need to digitally zoom.Typically, you’ll find a Zoom button (look for a magnifying glass with a plus symbol in it) on your camera. Pressing it will enlarge the image on your screen and only show you part of the image. You may need to use the command dial to navigate around the zoomed in pixels. Find the detail area that you want to focus on.

Zooming in on your LCD can help you check focus before you roll a video shot.

You can then use the focus ring on your camera to tweak the focus. Make minor turns to find the ideal focus. If needed, adjust the aperture and ISO settings of your camera to refine the depth of field. When you’re satisfied, you can either press the Zoom Out button or just press the Record button to roll the camera.Be sure to check out the book — Creating DSLR Video: From Snapshots to Great Shots

An essential concept in photography is the exposure triangle. Three settings in your camera affect how your camera exposes an image: ISO, aperture, and shutter speed. If you’re used to shooting in Automatic mode, you may have never adjusted these properties. However, if you’ve used Aperture or Shutter Priority mode, you’ve started to dabble with manual control.When shooting video, you’ll likely need to shoot entirely in Manual mode and take precise control over all three properties to get the exposure you need. Even if you think you’ve mastered exposure for your DSLR when shooting stills, keep reading. Getting the correct exposure for video is more complicated because of video’s limitations.

Shutter Speed

The first property you’ll set is the side of the triangle with the least flexibility. The shutter speed controls how long your camera stays open when you take a photo. It has a similar function in video because it greatly impacts how much light comes through. The shutter speed also controls the amount of motion blur in an image.

The camera was locked down on a tripod and properly exposed for this shot. When my son is moving quickly, the shutter speed emphasizes the motion blur; when he’s moving slowly or holding still, he’s much more in focus.

To simulate a filmic image, you need to use the optimum shutter angle to accompany the 24p frame rate in a DSLR. You can use this simple formula:

one second ÷ (frame rate x 2)

For example, when shooting 24 fps, you would set your light meter to a 1/48 second exposure time (you may only have 1/50 as a choice). At 30 fps, you would use 1/60 of a second. Following this guideline will help ensure that the motion blur created by the camera looks natural.Can this rule be broken? Of course. There are two instances in which you will break this rule:

If you want to take on a more stylized approach to your video, you can change the shutter speed. A long shutter speed creates more motion blur and streaking. A shorter speed creates more of a hyper-action look with staccato movements.

If all else fails and you can’t get the exposure you need, you can change the shutter speed to let more (or even less) light into the camera. However, this change should only be made after you’ve exhausted the available aperture and ISO options.

Aperture

An easy way to think of aperture is as a window. The bigger the window, the more light you let into your camera. Easy enough, right? Of course, a lower number for the f-stop means a bigger opening (which can seem backwards at first).

The lower the f-stop, the wider the aperture. A wider opening lets more light into your camera. Image from Wikimedia Commons. Image by Cbuckley and Dicklyon.The advantage of having a lower f-stop means that you have more control over how much light gets into the camera. This sounds easy; just use the lowest number, right? Well, it’s not that simple. Here are a few details to consider:

The more you open the aperture, the shallower the depth of field. When shooting with an f/1.4 lens, you can literally have a person’s nose in focus while the ears are out of focus.

A lens with a lower f-stop is often more expensive. Most kit lenses have f-stops that range from f/4 to f/6. On the other hand, professional zooms can get as fast as f/2.8 and professional prime lenses (fixed focal length) can get even faster.

Cheaper zoom lenses change their f-stop as you move through the zoom. This can lead to an exposure change in the middle of a video shot if you attempt to use the zoom options.

Typically, I’ll use aperture as my first control for exposure. After I’ve locked in my ISO, I then adjust my aperture to achieve a proper exposure. Often, aperture can be used to control the depth of field in an image (how soon the image starts to go out of focus). For many, this shallow depth of field is a desirable aspect to shooting on a DSLR.

ISO

Your camera has an ISO setting that controls how sensitive its sensor is to light. The lower the number, the less sensitive the sensor is. For most cameras, an ISO setting of 100 is considered the base setting. This ISO works well when shooting under bright lights or sunny days.As lighting conditions change, you can bump up the ISO setting to 200 or 400 to deal with mixed lighting or overcast days. Higher ISO settings, like 800, 1250, and even 1600, can be used for nighttime and low-light shooting. Many newer DSLR cameras offer even higher ISO settings.However, it’s important to remember that cranking up the ISO is literally like turning up the volume. As the signal is amplified, the amount of visible noise increases. For still workflows, this noise can often be cleaned up with filters. For video, you’re out of luck. Too much noise will result in a grainy image with dancing pixels. Be sure to test your camera and determine how high of an ISO setting you’re comfortable using.

The noise becomes very visible in this low-light image. In this case, an ISO of 6400 was used; however, it produces an unusable image. Be careful not to boost your ISO too high when shooting in low light, or visible noise will ruin the shot.

This digital video tutorial explains how incorrect shutter settings can make footage jittery, and how you can set it correctly.

This specific tutorial is from the DSLR Video Tips series presented by lynda.com authors Rich Harrington and Robbie Carman. The complete DSLR Video Tips course is presented as a weekly lynda.com series and covers the most common questions videographers encounter when shooting and editing with DSLR (digital single-lens reflex) cameras, from choosing a frame size and frame rate to understanding moiré.

Thursday

When you bought your DSLR, it probably came with a zoom lens that easily lets you get a wide range of coverage with just a quick twist of the wrist. So, why on earth would you go back in time and pick up a prime lens that only offers a single focal length?It’s all about aperture.Most prime lenses offer apertures that open as far f/1.2 to f/2. These wide openings let in a lot more light, which is truly useful when shooting in existing light or low-light environments.Prime lenses are universally faster than zoom lenses and typically are much cheaper as well. This is due to the way the lenses are manufactured. Prime lenses have fewer moving parts and elements than zoom lenses.Having a prime lens or two in your kit will really come in handy in the following situations:

When you need to shoot in very low-light conditions

When you want to shoot with a shallow depth of field to blur your background or give the video a more filmic look

Adorama Photography TV presents the Nikon D600 Digital SLR. In this episode, I show you what Nikon's latest Digital SLR is all about.

Join Rich as he walks you through the many features and modes of this amazing camera. Watch as he explains all that it can do, such as shooting RAW and uncompressed HD video. Then, follow along as he takes you through the menu system for a closer look.

In this episode you will learn how to use Adobe Premiere Pro CS6 tools such as the 8-point Garbage Matte and Ultra Key to create the initial or placeholder key. Then, watch as Rich kicks the project over the After Effects to create the final project using elements like Keylight and 3D Lights.

AdoramaTV presents DSLR | Video Tips with Richard Harrington. In this episode, Rich answers some of your recent questions about the time-lapse workflow on a mac computer.

Join him as he takes you through the process of building a time-lapse sequence using Final Cut Pro 10.

In earlier episodes, you learned how to work with your processed or RAW files in Adobe After Effects, including techniques such as color stabilizing, adding a vignette, or scaling and sizing over time. The Final Cut Pro 10 post-production process is the next step when creating compelling and unique time-lapse animations.

AdoramaTV presents DSLR | Video Tips with Richard Harrington. In this episode, Rich shares techniques on how to manually calibrate your DSLR camera for proper white balance. Then, follow along as he gives you a quick look at how to use a 3-way color corrector tool to white balance in post-production.

Sometimes, using the auto white balance (AWB) option can become problematic. If there is a change in lighting over time, such as a cloud moving in front of the sun, it can cause the AWB to re-adjust during your shot. To avoid this, try using the white balance pre-sets and calibration tools to customize your shooting situation.

AdoramaTV presents DSLR | Video Skills with Richard Harrington. Today, Rich explores different editing techniques to make realistic backdrops for chroma keying. Learn how you can adjust the focal point or the depth of field of your photo by using some of these key tools in Adobe Photoshop CS6.

When you have a photo you want to use as a background, sometimes the focal point or the depth of field isn't suitable for using behind your subject when keying a green screen. In this episode, Rich touches up four photos to use as potential backdrops for his green screen project. By using tools such as the camera lens blur effect, masking, or the blur tool you can make your own custom depth mattes that will work perfectly with your chroma key.

This digital video tutorial explains how the golden rule of shutter speed and when you might want to deviate from it. Watch more at http://www.lynda.com/video-tutorials/DSLR-Video-Tips/103707-2.html?utm_medium....
This specific tutorial is from the DSLR Video Tips series presented by lynda.com authors Rich Harrington and Robbie Carman. The complete DSLR Video Tips course is presented as a weekly lynda.com series and covers the most common questions videographers encounter when shooting and editing with DSLR (digital single-lens reflex) cameras, from choosing a frame size and frame rate to understanding moiré.

AdoramaTV presents DSLR | Video Skills with Richard Harrington. Join Rich as he explains the importance of properly monitoring your shot. Unlike digital photography, there are not many options available to fix a video after a field shoot.
In this episode, learn different ways you can prevent focus or exposure problems by adding extra equipment to help. Items such as a camera rig, a reliable viewfinder, and a field monitor will help you to avoid problems that can not be fixed in post.

This is my favorite new light… works great and I've used in for portraits, studio, and green screen work.

Adorama Photography TV presents the Lowel Prime 400 LED Light. Join Rich as he tests out all the key functions of this very popular production light. If you ever need a lightweight, all-inclusive light for either in the studio or out in the field, this is the one for you.
This quiet LED light is perfect for just about any situation. One of the key features is that it is cool enough to touch without safety gloves. Not only that, but your talent will remain comfortable throughout production sitting under this light either in the studio or in the field.

AdoramaTV presents DSLR | Video Skills with Richard Harrington. Join Rich in this episode as he uses Adobe Photoshop CS6 for quick video editing. Even though Adobe Creative Suite has software designed for video editing, Photoshop also has this the option for those who are comfortable working in the Photoshop platform.

Editing in Photoshop is perfect for short videos captured on your DSLR camera. Learn tips on how to set up a timeline complete with layers pallet, editing tools menu, and adjustment layers. See how to trim, ripple, fade, render, and export.

Come and Join +Jan Kabili and +Ron Clifford as we welcome back Richard Harrington as he walks us through how awesome and easy it is to edit video in Photoshop CS6. Our friendly and inquisitive panelists were Anna Nguyen and Sarra Robinson

One of my favorite video tools has been updated and is now shipping. PluralEyes is a HUGE timesaver that makes syncing multi camera video shoots and Dual System Sound projects (like DSLR and RED) a piece of cake. I have spent A LOT of time with the new version and it just rocks. To start… it's 20X faster… yes TWENTY.

I also love how it can create new media files from my merged clips for DSLR shoots.

The product is shipping and supports several formats and workflows. Several updated are in the works including support for more file types and an Avid version.

Adobe Premiere Pro CS6 has a warp stabilizer tool that you may have heard about, but Rich Harrington takes you deep inside its many subtle options for the best possible results, while also showing you how to take advantage of the Mercury Playback Engine for maximum performance.

AdoramaTV presents DSLR | Video Tips with Richard Harrington. In this episode, Rich takes you further into the creation of Time-Lapse animations by giving you an advanced look into the most professional way to assemble your files using Adobe After Effects.

In earlier episodes, you learned how to shoot time-lapse, what gear to use, and how to develop the files using Photoshop and Bridge. Now, Rich will show you how to work with your processed or RAW files in Adobe After Effects, including techniques such as color stabilizing, adding a vignette, or scaling and sizing over time.

Adobe Premiere CS6 provides new browsing -- and editing! -- features for clips in bins. Rich Harrington will show you to preview the contents of any clip from the Project Panel or Media Browser. You'll also learn to set in and out points without ever having to load a clip. This means you can edit right from the bin onto the timeline.

AdoramaTV presents DSLR | Video Tips with Richard Harrington. Now that you've learned about what gear you need when shooting time-lapse as well as techniques for how to processes your images in post-production, Rich will take you a step further in creating your time-lapse animation.

In this episode Rich demonstrates how to set up a video timeline, organize the files, process the images, and prepare for export and posting. Join Rich in this step-by-step tutorial of how to build time-lapse animations using Adobe Photoshop CS6.

AdoramaTV Presents DSLR | Video Tips with Richard Harrington. Now that you've learned the strategies for organizing images using Adobe Bridge, it's time to take the post-production process a step further and see how to develop images for time-lapse with Adobe Camera Raw.

Watch Rich as he develops photos in preparation for different time-lapse sequences. Learn how to make the images pop by adjusting key elements such as highlights, exposure, vibrance, and clarity in Adobe Camera Raw.Check Out More Tutorials – http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL45101D7EFD3E733A

AdoramaTV Presents DSLR | Video Tips with Richard Harrington. Join Rich as he takes you through the first part of the post-production process for time-lapse videos. In this episode you will learn a great way to browse and organize your files so they are ready to use in a sequence.Before you create a time-lapse video, it's important to take the time to sort through and see the files you have. Stacking your images and batch re-naming are two essential steps in this post-production process.Check Out More Tutorials – http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL45101D7EFD3E733A

AdoramaTV Presents DSLR Video Tips with Richard Harrington. Join Rich as he explains how to put together a time-lapse shot. In this episode you will learn what essential gear you will need when preparing to shoot time-lapse photography. Then, follow along as Rich guides you through how to set the camera so that you can ensure fantastic images for your post-production process.

When preparing to shoot at sunset for time-lapse photography, it is important to take the time to find the perfect time and location, ensure your safety, set the camera, test the shots, and then sit back and let the camera sit without any interruption. Being prepared and understanding these steps will make all the difference in your compelling time-lapse project.

This DSLR tutorial introduces aspect ratio and discusses the different variations of aspect ratios and how they're used in the industry. Watch more at http://www.lynda.com/course-tutorials/DSLR-Video-Tips-Rich-Harrington/103707-...
This specific tutorial is from the DSLR Video Tips series presented by lynda.com authors Rich Harrington and Robbie Carman. The complete DSLR Video Tips course is presented as a weekly lynda.com series and covers the most common questions videographers encounter when shooting and editing with DSLR (digital single-lens reflex) cameras, from choosing a frame size and frame rate to understanding moiré.

AdoramaTV Presents DSLR Video Tips with Richard Harrington. Join Rich as he explains the three main elements to consider when deciding on the correct exposure for your video, ISO, Aperture, and Shutter Speed.

When using a digital camera, it is important to understand the different manual settings. You can use these exposure triangle tips when figuring out the relation of the light and how it enters your camera, giving you complete control of your shoot.

Here's an excerpt from the official guide to Adobe Premiere Pro that I co-authored.

This excerpt covers ways of performing common tasks such as playing video clips, including a new browsing feature in Premiere Pro CS6 called hover scrub, and other key topics such as essential playback controls and customizing your monitors.Note: This excerpt is from the forthcoming bookAdobe Premiere Pro CS6 Classroom in a Book.

Playback resolution

If you have an older or slower processor, your computer may struggle to play back very high-quality video clips. To work with a wide variety of computer hardware configurations, from powerful desktop workstations to lightweight portable laptops, Premiere Pro can lower the playback resolution to make playback smoother. You can switch the playback resolution as often as you like, using the Select Playback Resolution menu on the Source (and Program) monitor.

Timecode information

At the bottom left of the Source monitor, a timecode display shows the current position of the playhead in hours, minutes, seconds, and frames (00:00:00;00).

At the bottom right of the Source monitor, a timecode display shows the total selected duration for your clip. Later, you’ll be adding special marks to make a partial selection. For now, it shows the complete duration.

Safe margins

Old-style CRT monitors crop the edges of the picture to achieve a clean edge. If you are producing video for a CRT monitor, click the Settings (spanner icon) button at the bottom of the Source monitor and choose Safe Margins. Premiere Pro displays white outlines over the image.

The outer box is the Safe Action zone. Aim to keep important action inside this box so that when the picture is displayed, cropping does not hide what is going on.

The inner box is the Title Safe zone. Keep titles and graphics inside this box so that even on a badly calibrated display, your audience will be able to read the words.

Click back into the Settings button at the bottom of the Source monitor and choose Safe Margins to turn them off.

Essential playback controls

Let’s look at the playback controls.

Double-click the shot 16_6B in the Double Identity bin to open it in the Source monitor.

At the bottom of the Source monitor, there’s a yellow playhead marker. Drag it along the bottom of the panel to view different parts of the clip. You can also click wherever you want the playhead to go, and it will jump to wherever you click.

Below the clip navigation bar and the playhead, there is a scrollbar that doubles as a Zoom control. Drag one end of the scrollbar to zoom in on the clip navigator.

Click the Play button to play the clip. Click it again to stop playback. You can also use the spacebar to play and stop playback.

Click the Step Back and Step Forward buttons to move through the clip one frame at a time. You can also use the left- and right-arrow keys on your keyboard.

Use the J, K, and L keys to play your clip.

Customizing the monitors

To customize your monitors, click the Settings button on the Source monitor. This menu gives you several different display options for your Source monitor (the Program monitor has a similar menu). You can choose to view waveforms and vector scopes to analyze your video.

For now, we just want to know how to get regular video on-screen. Make sure Composite Video is selected in this menu. You can add or remove buttons at the bottom of the Source monitor.

Click the Button Editor button at the bottom right of the Source monitor. A special set of buttons appears.

Drag the Loop button from the floating panel to the right of the Play button on the Source monitor, and click OK.

Double-click the di05c_compv_02 clip in the Double Identity bin to open it in the Source monitor.

Click the Loop button to enable it, and then play the video using the spacebar or the Play button on the Source monitor. Stop the playback when you have seen enough. With Loop turned on, Premiere Pro continuously repeats playback.

Here's an excerpt from the official guide to Adobe Premiere Pro that I co-authored.

This excerpt covers ways of performing common tasks such as playing video clips, including a new browsing feature in Premiere Pro CS6 called hover scrub, and other key topics such as essential playback controls and customizing your monitors.Note: This excerpt is from the forthcoming book Adobe Premiere Pro CS6 Classroom in a Book.

The greater part of video editing is invested in watching clips and making creative choices about them. It’s important to feel really comfortable browsing media.

Premiere Pro has multiple ways of performing common tasks such as playing video clips. You can use the keyboard, click buttons with your mouse, or use an external device like a jog/shuttle control.

Premiere Pro CS6 has a new browsing feature called hover scrub that allows you to view the contents of your clips quickly and easily right in the bin.

1 Double-click the Double Identity bin to open it.

2 Click the Icon View button at the bottom-left corner of the bin.

3 Drag your mouse, without clicking, across any of the images in the bin.Premiere Pro displays the contents of the clip as you drag. The left edge of the thumbnail represents the beginning of the clip, and the right edge represents the end. In this way, the width of the thumbnail represents the whole clip.

4 Select a clip by clicking it once. Hover scrubbing is now turned off, and a mini scrollbar appears at the bottom of the thumbnail. Try dragging through the clip using the scrollbar.

5 Select a clip, and use the JKL keys to play the thumbnail. Be sure to click the clip only once. If you double-click, it will open in the Source monitor.

Tip: If you press the J or L key multiple times, Premiere Pro will play the video clips at multiple speeds.

When you double-click a clip, not only is it displayed in the Source monitor, it’s also added to a list of recent clips.

6 Double-click to open four or five clips from the Double Identity bin.

7 Click the Recent Items menu to browse between your recent clips.

8 Click the Zoom menu at the bottom of the Source monitor. By default, this is set to Fit, which means Premiere Pro will display the whole frame, regardless of the original size. Change the setting to 100%. These Double Identity clips are high-resolution, and they are probably much bigger than your Source monitor. You are likely to have scrollbars at the bottom and on the right of your Source monitor now, so you can view different parts of the image. The benefit of viewing with Zoom set to 100% is that you see every pixel of the original video, which is useful for checking the quality.

9 Set the Zoom back to Fit.Tip: Notice that you have the option to close a single clip or close all clips, clearing the menu and the monitor. Some editors like to clear the menu and then open several clips that are part of a scene by selecting them all in the bin and dragging them into the Source monitor together. They can then use the recent items menu to browse only the clips from this short list.

This is the hardest message for most photographers to accept. You cannot truly make a professional video in isolation. Am I saying that one person can’t do everything? No. But can they do it well? Consider the following.

Video projects often have firm deadlines – Whether it’s an air date, a live event, a corporate meeting, or a project launch. Deadlines are standard in the world of video, having a team means bench strength and safety in numbers.

You’ll make more money doing what you do best – How many photographers are magazine publishers? Do they sell the advertisements and write all the stories? What about when publishing a book... do they fire up their personal printing press? The point here is that a photographer should do what they do best. That tends to be direct the talent, pick the locations for shooting, lens the project, and carry their creative vision through the editing and graphics stages. I am not saying you should avoid editing or motion graphics, but you may be pretty slow (especially when you first start). I say try anything three times… but if you find you hate the work or you are turning down other jobs... then its time to move on. You can always find people who want to do parts of the job you are weakest at… plus they’ll likely be far faster than you. This will let you shoot more and line up more business through your contacts.

The creative mind is like a hive – Adding additional people that you trust can really lead to a better product. I find that having other professionals around keeps me from slipping into my old habits. It also leads to creative discussions that push the envelope and lead to a better outcome.

Adorama Photography TV Presents DSLR | Video Skills with Rich Harrington. Join Rich as he explains the essentials of green screen production. Follow along as he walks you through the steps from lighting, testing, to keying in post production.

When preparing to record a subject in front of a green screen, it is important to find the correct lighting and backdrop. Once you have the green screen set and a test subject lit, you are ready to record and key your new background in post-production In this episode, Rich demonstrates several techniques to keying in Adobe After Effects.

Do you have DSLR videography or Adobe Premiere Pro questions? Join me and Robbie Carman on the lynda.com Facebook timeline Thursday 08/02 from 1-2pm PT for a live Q&A session. Look for the for the post on the timeline wall, and come prepared with all your video production or postproduction questions. http://on.fb.me/Pf4muq

Adorama Photography TV Presents DSLR | Video Skills, with Rich Harrington. Now that you have your subject lit for your professional interview, it's time to take a step further and modify the lighting.

When preparing for an on-camera, professional interview, it is important to try to get the most out of the lighting you are using. In this episode, Rich demonstrates how to get the best skin-tone, hair light, and background light by using different light modifying techniques. Learn how to use lighting accessories such as gels, dimmers, flags, reflectors, and cookies to get a great-looking interview.
This is part two in our lighting series for video -- be sure to watch the first episode toohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AwR7djWa5w

Adorama Photography TV Presents DSLR | Video Skills with Rich Harrington. Join Rich as he demonstrates how to achieve sync sound production. There are many tools to help accomplish professional audio during your production.

Most DSLR cameras have a built in microphone, but to you need more to capture good professional audio. It is important to capture good quality audio. In this episode, Rich reveals the tools you can use to ensure you achieve sync sound during your production and post production process.

I recently an eSeminar on the new features in Photoshop that benefits the motion graphic artist and video editor.In case you missed it, we have posted arecording of the eSeminar.I covered many new features in this one hour session, and here’s a brief outline of the features and how you can use them in productions:

The adaptive wide angle feature to improve your images

Search features to find layers and effects used in a project

Blur tools to enhance and blur portions of an image to use as background plates

Content Aware tools to scale and improve aspect ratios in images

Camera RAW improvements to help you remove noise

Crop tool presets to create broadcast ready images

Accelerated special effects in Photoshop that speed your editing workflow

Text style features for creating lower thirds

Color correction tools that can be used for quick and easy color grading

These days, a "film look" is more popular than ever. This workshop will give you practical shooting advice to achieve a shallow depth of field and more filmic look in camera. You'll also learn how to enhance even the toughest footage for a better look using a comprehensive suite of tools. Learn how to create realistic textures and curves using the DFT Film Stocks plugin. You can also create dynamic color mapping with PhotoCopy and enhance the light in your scene with Rays.

Three-point Lighting is a combination of a Key light, back light, and a fill light. Three-point light gives you full control over the light and shadows casting over your subject. Understanding the three-point lighting technique gives you the building blocks to advance with your photography.

This tutorial discusses which frame rate you should choose, depending on your specific requirements. Watch more at http://www.lynda.com/course-tutorials/DSLR-Video-Tips-Rich-Harrington/103707-...
This specific tutorial is from the DSLR Video Tips series presented by lynda.com authors Rich Harrington and Robbie Carman. The complete DSLR Video Tips course is presented as a weekly lynda.com series and covers the most common questions videographers encounter when shooting and editing with DSLR (digital single-lens reflex) cameras, from choosing a frame size and frame rate to understanding moiré.

Adorama Photography TV Presents DSLR | Video Skills with Rich Harrington. Join Rich as he demonstrates how to record sync sound audio when shooting with a DSLR camera. This video focusses on how to record great audio for your next project... we'll cover postproduction in a future episode.

Most DSLR cameras have a built in microphone, but to accomplish good professional audio you need more. Audio is one of the most important elements when producing video. Having an dedicated microphone to capture your audio can increase the overall quality of your video. In this episode, Rich demonstrates how to capture audio with various devices that are compatible with DSLR cameras.
Related Products:

The Rule of Thirds is a guideline that helps you better frame and composite your shots. It states that you should imagine every image as being divided equally by 2 horizontal lines, and 2 vertical lines. The important parts of the image should fall on those lines, or on their intersection. The main goal of this rule is to prevent you from shooting everything dead in the center of your frame. Following this guideline will make for more interesting shots, rather than a boring centered image.Continue reading the full tutorial here – http://www.rodypolis.com/15/post/2012/06/ruleofthirds.html

Adobe Creative Suite 6 Production Premium software is the latest high-performance toolset with everything you need to create productions for virtually any screen, with its many new features, it’s the perfect solution to be the hub of your post-production workflow.

Join Adobe Certified Instructor Richard Harrington as he shows you what's new with Adobe's Creative Suite 6 for the video pro—you’ll learn how to get more done faster in Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects as well as how Photoshop can be used for all your video projects.

Rich will focus on techniques that you can put into action right away, you'll learn about:

Watch more about Premiere Pro CS6 at http://www.lynda.com/Premiere-Pro-training-tutorials/287-0.html?utm_medium=vi...
Learn about the new user interface for viewing or changing keyboard shortcuts in Premiere Pro, and some of the new shortcuts for common editing commands, such as matching frames, creating and playing loops, in and out point controls, moving between editing clips, and exporting frames.

Once you’ve edited your masterpiece its time to share it with the world. Two of the most popular sites are Vimeo and YouTube. Both have upload limits on how big of a video you can post (Plus, why should you waste time loading up a bigger file that just has to get compressed again for the web?). Compress the files on your machine and you'll have faster upload times and better playback quality.
Here’s how to make compressed video right inside Adobe Premiere Pro:

Join Rich Harrington, motion graphic artist, author, and trainer, on location at Kelby Media Studios as he takes you through every step in the process of creating a video product for a client. Learn everything involved in creating a professional quality video with your DSLR, from the initial client meeting to scouting locations, and from all the essential gear to how to conduct engaging interviews. Each step of the way Rich provides expert insights and killer tips to get you well on your way to adding video story telling to your bag of tricks.

There’s still plenty of work to do after the cameras are stowed away. Join Rich Harrington, motion graphic artist, author, and trainer, as he guides you through the transition from post video capture to preparing for post production. The steps you take during this phase of the process, from backing up your data to gathering additional source material, are critical to the project’s overall completion and success, and are what separate the amateur from the professional.

Highlights from the Adobe Tips and Flicks event on February 22, 2012 in Washington, DC. Shane Hurlbut and Jacob Rosenberg discuss the DSLR filmmaking techniques and Adobe technology used in making the feature film Act of Valor. Adobe experts Rich Harrington and Colin Smith share tips on Creative Suite software.

Peachpit has my new DSLR video book on sale as well as a bunch of other cool titles about lighting, photography, portraits, and video. The sales is wedding themed (the season is upon us… but there's a lot of cool things listed.

Whether you’re gearing up to shoot your first wedding or your 700th, these guides from Peachpit are full of tips and techniques on lighting, portraits, posing, video, and more.

Nearly every DLSR camera available today also shoots beautiful high-definition video. YouTube and Facebook are bursting with user-generated content as people share their memories and travels. Whether it's highlights from a great vacation, the kids' soccer game, or family gatherings, everyone wants to create compelling video to document it. While DSLR cameras are quite capable of shooting video, for many, their foray into video shooting can be frustrating. Footage tends to be dark and out of focus and suffers from camera shake and bad audio.In Creating DSLR Video: From Snapshots to Great Shots, photographer and video expert Rich Harrington demystifies the process and teaches a solid foundation for capturing great video. Whether readers have been dabbling in video already or have never even used that mode on their camera, they will learn how to go from capturing mediocre video to creating compelling footage--and all the steps in between!Readers will also learn the essentials of video editing and publishing to the web; how to make the most of their existing equipment; affordable options to improve video capture; and much more! To supplement the book, readers will gain sample videos that further demonstrate the techniques presented in the book.

“…This workshop is the first of its kind. A comprehensive look at all things to do with motion storytelling. If you thought that a single image can move a person, imagine what a few moments in video can do. This workshop is not about button pushing and camera settings (though you’ll get plenty of technical expertise). You’ll learn how to create compelling video that captures both stories of Iceland’s people and enthralling footage to illustrate the story.”

Final Cut Pro X has several tools that let you sort, sift, filter, and find the perfect shot. You can use embedded metadata as well as attach powerful keywords to improve your ability to locate the perfect shot. In this chapter you'll learn the many ways to organize your media.

The act of video editing is not really about learning which buttons to push. The hardest part of editing is learning how to cull through large amounts of footage to find the “good parts”—the best sound bites, the most expressive b-roll, and the shots that just work. Of course, you then have to figure out how to put all of those pieces together.

In a sense, the act of editing video is much like having ten different jigsaw pieces mixed together. You have to find the right pieces and figure out how they go together while ignoring the pieces you don’t need.

Let’s just say that getting organized will be a critical step in your journey to a compelling story. Fortunately, Final Cut Pro X has several tools that let you sort, sift, filter, and find the perfect shot. You can use embedded metadata as well as attach powerful keywords to improve your ability to locate the perfect shot.

In this chapter we’ll explore the many ways to organize your media. Although you may want to skip ahead, we encourage you to tough it out. Learning how to organize an edit will make the whole process run faster and ensures that you’ll have the best shots at your fingertips.

In this chapter, you'll learn about importing files and the effect it will have on your system. You'll also learn how to bring in audio and even how to record your own narration tracks.The first step to starting an actual project is getting your media into Adobe Premiere Pro. No matter what kind of project you're doing, if you can't import media, you're stuck. Of course, not everything will come in the way you expect it. So, it's essential that you know how to modify clips. Adobe Premiere Pro also doesn't work alone: It's crucial that you understand the real "superpowers" of the suite. You can draw assets from the rest of the Adobe Creative suite, including Adobe After Effects, Adobe Photoshop, and even Adobe Audition.

In this chapter, you'll learn about importing files and the effect it will have on your system. You'll also learn how to bring in audio and even how to record your own narration tracks.

Each attendee will receive a $25.00 coupon at the event in exchange for a copy of their registration receipt.
The coupon will be valid for 30 days towards the purchase of any merchandise when presented at either Adorama’s retail store at 42 West 18th Street, New York, or for an online purchase at www.adorama.comThese days, most DSLR cameras now shoot video... but have you taken advantage of this great feature yet? There are tons of reasons to shoot video with your DSLR, from personal projects to professional opportunity, plus DSLR cameras offer great performance in low light and control over depth of field. Now is the time to explore video and get the most from your camera.

The class will explore common 'gotchas' that can ruin the shot and we'll also balance that out with a few post-production techniques to help you get organized (and even rescue a problem shot). This class will help you explore DSLR video and set you up for successful capture of great images, you'll learn how to take your knowledge of photography and transfer it to motion.

Each attendee will receive a $25.00 coupon at the event in exchange for a copy of their registration receipt.
The coupon will be valid for 30 days towards the purchase of any merchandise when presented at either Adorama’s retail store at 42 West 18th Street, New York, or for an online purchase at www.adorama.comEverywhere you turn, you're seeing the use of DSLR video cameras... music videos, commercials, television shows. But getting ready for a DSLR shoot presents all sorts of new challenges. Whether it's choosing the right lenses or knowing how many lights to pack, or even how to edit the footage once you've shot it... the rules have changed. The old adage "With new technology comes a need for new workflows" holds especially true.

Whether its strategies for alternate storage, multi-camera productions, or sync sound audio... there are important considerations with DSLR cameras. Things get even trickier when it comes to post-production. Learn how to conform your media to common editing formats as well as native editing workflows. This class tackles DSLR video from preproduction to post and will help you avoid and solve costly problems.

I have a tendency to carry a lot (and I mean A LOT) of memory cards on a shoot. Between shooting panoramic photos, time-lapse sequences, and HD video, I burn through memory cards faster than most. I find myself needing to be certain that I avoid accidentally erasing data.Here’s my strategy for safety:

Make sure that all memory cards are erased BEFORE going into the field. Don’t bring cards with data or you’ll sit there wondering if you transferred them already or if you’re about to wipe your only copy.

Have two card wallets. One full and one empty. Make sure they have the same number of slots.

Put the full wallet with all of the blank memory cards into your right pocket.

Put the empty wallet with no cards in it in your left pocket.

As you shoot cards, place them upside down in the card wallet in your left pocket.

Repeat this phrase ten times… The cards in the right pocket are the right cards to shoot with; the cards in my left pocket should be left alone.

I know it’s simplistic… but it’s saved me more than one time. Give it a shot.

Recently, I recorded a webinar for Adobe on the Adobe Premiere Pro timeline. It's posted for free viewing.Here’s the recording.I covered a lot of useful and interesting material, both in the main presentation and in the question-and-answer segment at the end.Here’s a brief outline of what I talked aboutt:

Essentially, all compression tools do the same thing. They take large video files and make them smaller. What differs from one tool to the next are factors like speed, supported file formats, and user interface design. Fortunately, most of these tools are either free or inexpensive. You’ll also find demo versions that you can try out before you buy.Here are some recommended tools to try:

QuickTime Pro (www.apple.com/quicktime/pro). This versatile application lets you convert video from one format to another. QuickTime Pro is a cross-platform solution and lets Mac and Windows users convert video files to work with Apple’s portable media players. It can also produce files using the Apple TV spec, which matches the HD requirements of most video-sharing sites. The app sells for $29.

iMovie (www.apple.com/ilife). Apple’s entry level video-editing tool can publish QuickTime and H.264 files directly. It can also publish video directly to YouTube, Vimeo, and Facebook. The app is sold separately for $15 through the Mac App Store or bundled with four other apps in the iLife suite.

Adobe Premiere Elements (www.adobe.com/products/premiereel). This versatile editing tool also contains a versatile compression tool set. With it, you can create movies in several formats, including MPEG-4 and Flash, and post directly to social media and video-sharing sites. The app sells for $99 new and is available for both Windows and Mac.

MPEG Streamclip (www.squared5.com). MPEG Streamclip is a multipurpose video converter, player, and editor that works on both Mac and Windows. It can encode to many formats; it can also cut, trim, and join movies. The biggest benefit is that it’s free!

Microsoft Expression Encoder and Expression Encoder Pro (www.microsoft.com/expression/products/Encoder4_Overview.aspx). This Windows-only tool comes in a free and a Pro version. It replaces the Windows Media Encoder, which was retired in mid-2010. It can create Windows Media Video files and Silverlight files. The Pro version can also output H.264 files.

Apple Compressor (www.apple.com/finalcutstudio/compressor). This powerful compression tool used to be bundled with Final Cut Studio but is now sold separately in the Mac App Store for $49. It allows you to create Apple-compatible files and is optimized for computers with multiple processors.

Adobe Media Encoder (www.adobe.com). This compression tool is not a stand-alone product. Rather, it is a core technology in the Adobe Creative Suite products that works with video. You can easily access it through products like Adobe Premiere Pro. It supports several web video formats and offers excellent control.

When you are shooting in lowlight conditions, it can be very difficult to get your camera to focus. Similarly, when shooting video, focus often becomes a manual process as well. If want to check focus, you need to take a few extra steps. Just turning on the LCD and glancing at it won’t cut it. The small screen makes everything look more in focus because it can’t show you all the pixels at once. The reduced image size creates the illusion of a sharper image.

The Technique

If you want to really see what is in focus, you’ll need to zoom, and then zoom some more. If you’re using a zoom lens, zoom in as tight as possible on your subject. Zooming in on an area like the eyes works well; a button on a shirt works well too. You’ll then need to digitally zoom.

Typically, you’ll find a Zoom button (look for a magnifying glass with a plus symbol in it) on your camera. Pressing it will enlarge the image on your screen and only show you part of the image. You may need to use the command dial to navigate around the zoomed in pixels. Find the detail area that you want to focus on.

You can then use the focus ring on your camera lens to tweak the focus. Make minor turns to find the ideal focus. If needed, adjust the aperture and ISO settings of your camera to refine the depth of field. When you’re satisfied, you can either press the Zoom Out button or just press the Record button or shutter release to roll the camera.

DSLR video training with Robbie Carman and Rich Harrington: This episode features creating a single clip that contains your video and high quality audio. In Premiere Pro CS5.5, they'll be merging clips and syncing audio in post.

In this installment of Video Adrenaline for Premiere Pro, Richard Harrington delivers the great new feature in AE CS5.5 for image stabilization and ties it seamlessly into PP using Dynamic Link. Take advantage of this new feature to seamlessly exchange files between the two programs.

In this video tutorial with Robbie Carman and Richard Harrington, learn various ways for converting DSLR footage into instantaneous, buttery smooth slow motion using After Effects, Twixtor, or Cinema Tools; you might also use Optical Flow in Apple Motion, Advanced Frame Blending in AE, and FCP .

This is a sneak peek from a new book I am writing – Creating DSLR Video: From Snapshots to Great ShotsWhile you can do a lot in postproduction to fix exposure, video files are a lot like working with JPEG images (as opposed to raw photos). Push an adjustment too far and you’ll get posterized image where details are clipped. Shoot too dark or too bright and you’ll have no information to work with and possibly quite a bit of noise.

The key is to always protect your highlights. Do not let the bright areas of your image (like skies or faces) get clipped. One view you likely have on your camera is a histogram. You typically can see this after taking a photo or cycling through your view options (in most cameras you can push the Info button or press your navigation dial from side to side to cycle views). If the histogram is pushed against the right edge, it means you have no information to work with. Blown out highlights go pure white and there is just no way to recover the details.Here you can see the same scene shot two different ways. In the first, I shot things a little hot. With color correction in post, I was able to recover a lot of details. But you’ll notice that a lot of the details in the shadows are clipped.

On the other hand, I also shot the scene and exposed for the “boring middle.” In this case the histograms were more balanced and I had a lot more information to work with. After color correction (a Levels and Saturation adjustment), the shot looks a lot better.

It’s better to slightly underexpose than overexpose when shooting video. Notice how the shadowy details in the rocks are preserved better in this version.ISO 100 | 1/60th sec. | f/14 | 32mm lens

The use of a loupe or viewfinder is essential for outdoor shooting. Bright light on your LCD just makes things damn near impossible to judge. If this is out of your price range, wear a hat and use it as a shield for time to time to judge exposure. I can’t emphasize enough though that a loupe should be one of your first investments if you become serious about shooting video on your DSLR camera. By removing all light pollution, you can make accurate decisions.

Everyone faces exposure problems, even if you're using a loupe, it's difficult to judge, especially without a waveform or histogram. After loading your clips onto your computer, and you're faced with dark and underexposed clips, use this tutorial from their continuing DSLR series, featuring the expertise of Robbie Carman and Richard Harrington, and learn how to bypass the camera - go straight to NLEs and talk about the best methods for correction of underexposed clips.

Everyone faces exposure problems, even if you're using a loupe, it's difficult to judge, especially without a waveform or histogram. After loading your clips onto your computer, and you're faced with dark and underexposed clips, use this tutorial from their continuing DSLR series, featuring the expertise of Robbie Carman and Richard Harrington, and learn how to bypass the camera - go straight to NLEs and talk about the best methods for correction of underexposed clips.

In this tutorial for the Premiere Pro Video Adrenaline series, Richard Harrington talks about how to control time inside Premiere Pro. There are many options to change the speed of clips, including the rate stretch tool, time remapping to achieve a variable speed value, and using After Effects own remapping abilities to fine tune your results.

DSLR video training with Robbie Carman and Rich Harrington: This episode talks about why you want an iPad for production. There is a DSLR Slate App (often used for production information, a sync point for dual system audio, etc.) which now moves all of this information to your portable device.

A great way to sync your DSLR and sync-sound footage is with a stand-alone, third-party application called DualEyes from Singular Software (www.singularsoftware.com/dualeyes.html). What’s really cool is that DualEyes can sync your DSLR video clips and your separate high-quality audio recordings before you import them into Final Cut Pro X, Adobe Premiere Pro, Avid etc. It creates a new video clip containing the good audio married to the original video, so there is no loss in video quality. Plus, your original files remain untouched on your drive. In my tests, DualEyes was significantly faster than Final Cut Pro X's automatic syncing (but it will set you back $149).

Here is a quick overview of how DualEyes works.

1. Launch the DualEyes application.

2. Click the New Project button.

3. Give the project a descriptive name, and select a location where you want to save the project. I suggest saving in a media folder related to the project you are syncing because DualEyes does create new media and temp files when it runs. The application also generates a report file that you can peruse to determine any problem clips.

4. Drag in the video and audio files that you want to sync or click the Add Media button (the plus symbol).

Officially, you can add multiple video files, but it is best to stick with only one good audio file. This is not multi-camera prep, so you should only put video in from one camera or camera angle. Don’t throw everything in at once. With that said, I dumped in the sound track from a concert and every video angle (even a few random clips), and it did an excellent job of matching the sound.

5. Click the Options menu and choose from the following options:

Replace Audio for MOV and AVI files. DualEyes will create a new file that contains the video from the original clip and the synced audio for MOV and AVI files. Make sure you select this option, or you won’t get a new self-contained movie file with clean audio.

Correct Drift. Cameras can record at 24P, 29.97i, and so on. Audio devices like to keep rates at 30 frames per second. These timing differences between the audio and video can sometimes cause drift, which means audio and video could be perfectly synced in one segment of the video but unsynced in a different segment. The Correct Drift option corrects this so that everything is in sync all the time. This problem tends to show up in very long recordings.

Level Audio. Before DualEyes, the creator of the software had a great product used by podcasters worldwide called the Levelator. This product did a wonderful job of smoothing out variations in sound. Well, that’s built into DualEyes. If your audio levels vary a lot between clips, DualEyes can normalize the audio levels. If you’ve recorded from a professional soundboard at a venue, this might be overkill, but for interviews and most other situations, it works great. It’s almost always safe to use this option, but it will take a bit longer to process.

6. Click the scissors button to start synchronizing clips.

7. You can monitor progress within the app and view the Output column to track progress. When it’s done, you will see a new clip that contains the good audio and the good video (minus the bad audio). You will find this movie in the same folder as the original movie with the bad audio. Its name will be appended with “_from_” and then the name of the good audio file you referenced.

8. Simply import it into Final Cut Pro X, Adobe Premiere Pro, or Avid and you are good to go.

DualEyes is a popular choice with those who need to prepare footage to hand off to clients or other team members. It’s popular because it’s fast and it saves several steps at the editing stage (which often get screwed up due to poor communication). I recommend you download the free demo and try it out.

In this episode of Video Adrenaline for Photoshop and After Effects, Richard Harrington explores how to use the Lens Blur Filter in AE CS5.5 to create variable depth of field. This filter is an improvement on the last version of the same.

Vimeo is a popular website for sharing video (especially amongst professional and amateur filmmakers). It offers both free and paid accounts with different levels of service. Once you’ve set up a Vimeo account, you publish a project to Vimeo directly from Final Cut Pro X.

2. Choose an account from the Account menu, or click Add to add an existing account. You can add more than one account to the list but can only export to one at a time.

3. Fill in the requests field:▪ Password. Enter your Vimeo account password. You’ll need to enter it each time you want to publish for security purposes.▪ Viewable by. Choose who can see the video.▪ Title. Enter a name for the movie so others can search for it.▪ Description. The information here helps power search features on the site and can convince others to watch your movie.▪ Tags. You can use keywords to help viewers find your movie.4. Select the “Set size automatically” option or deselect it and choose from the menu to control the size of the output movie. Vimeo has limits on free accounts as to how many clips and data can be uploaded each week.

5. Use the Compression menu as well as the Advanced and Summary areas to control the quality of the file generated. These controls are identical to the options previously discussed.

6. Click Next to read the terms of service. Click the blue hypertext to go directly to the terms of service and review the rights you are granting the video hosting provider.

From the Creative COW DSLR Essentials Podcast, Robbie Carman and Richard Harrington bring you part three in a three-part series on creating time lapse. This episode covers assembling a time lapse shot.

From the Creative COW DSLR Essentials Podcast, Robbie Carman and Richard Harrington bring you part two in a three-part series on creating time lapse. This episode covers shooting techniques for time-lapse.

DSLR video training with Robbie Carman and Rich Harrington: This episode examines the essentials for DSLR video, including the BlackRapid R-Strap, a calibration target from PhotoVision, LED on-camera lights, hot shoe splitters or adapters, a mountable mini bi-directional level, hard cases for small items, and more.

Stream videos at UstreamMy company, RHED Pixel is offering a two day Media and Social Media Symposium. The event will be streaming live for two days (we have several 45 minute sessions). Below is the schedule for day two, Wednesday, October 26. We'll stream these only once… so if you want to catch these live you can watch below or at this link – http://www.ustream.tv/channel/rhed-pixel-open-house-day-1 10:00 AM ESTVideo on the Go: Producing Video for Smart Phones, Apple iOS and Google Droid Richard Harrington & Mark Weiser — RHED Pixel11:00 AM ESTMeasuring Social Media Results: Real World Metrics Amy DeLouise12:00 PM ESTMore than 140 Characters: Enriching Twitter and Facebook with Photos, Video, and More Richard Harrington— RHED Pixel2:00 PM ESTYou Can Hear the Difference: The Benefit of Audio SweeteningCheryl Ottenritter –Ott House Audio3:00 PM ESTColor Grading your Video Project: When You Really Want to Fix it in PostRobbie Carman — Amigo Media4:00 PM ESTFix it in Post: Rescuing Footage from Production Disasters Brenda Spevak and Adam Martray — RHED Pixel4:45 PM ESTThe Perfect Key: What You Need to Know About Green Screen Richard Harrington & Xi Lin —RHED Pixel

Stream videos at UstreamMy company, RHED Pixel is offering a two day Media and Social Media Symposium. The event will be streaming live for two days (we have several 45 minute sessions). Below is the schedule for day one, Tuesday, October 25. We'll stream these only once… so if you want to catch these live you can watch below or at this link – http://www.ustream.tv/channel/rhed-pixel-open-house-day-1 10:00 AM EST Hypersyndication: How to Get Your Social Media and Video More EyeballsRichard Harrington — RHED Pixel

Centered around an all-new full-frame CMOS sensor with larger pixels than those found on the EOS 5D Mark II image sensor, the EOS-1D X utilizes new HD video formats to simplify and speed up post-production work. Nice to see when they admit a problem. This is a true focus on professional workflows (which is great to see)

The two new compression formats offered on the EOS-1D X include intraframe (ALL-i ) compression for an editing-friendly format and interframe (IPB) compression for superior data compression, giving professionals the options they need for their ideal workflow. The first option is HUGE. This will mean bigger files, but fewer compression artifacts. It will also mean that the files will be easier to edit as they place less demand on the computer's CPU and GPU.Answering the requests of cinematographers and filmmakers, the EOS-1D X includes two methods of SMPTE-compliant timecode embedding, Rec Run and Free Run, allowing multiple cameras or separate sound recording to be synced together in post production.TImecode is the law that lets multiple pieces of gear to play together. This is absolutely essential to professional workflows.Canon's all new full-frame CMOS sensor ensures that video footage captured on the EOS-1D X will exhibit less moiré than any previous Canon model, resulting in a significant improvement in HD video quality. Full sensors are great for low light… not so much for outdoor shooting. Remember to keep a matte box around for filtration.

A desired feature for many documentary filmmakers using Canon DSLRs was to enable recording beyond the four gigabyte (GB) file capacity and the EOS-1D X is the answer. The new camera features automatic splitting of movie files when a single file exceeds 4GB. The new file splitting function allows for continuous video recording up to 29 minutes and 59 seconds across multiple 4GB files; no frames are dropped and the multiple files can be seamlessly connected in post production, providing filmmakers the recording time they want in the same convenient DSLR form factor. This is great and removes the artificial barrier. Pro cameras have been splitting and reconnecting files for years.Although the phrase "the same convenient DSLR form factor" is clearly a misperception. Come on Camera, make a digital back feature that makes it easier to modify the camera and add some XLR ports.The camera records Full HD at 1920 x 1080 in selectable frame rates of 24p (23.976), 25p, or 30p (29.97); and 720p HD or SD video recording at either 50p or 60p (59.94). SD video can be recorded in either NTSC or PAL standards.This is great… but I'd really like to see some more 720 options.From what I hear, the Canon announcement in early November is DIFFERENT, than this announcement and should be interesting.

The Canon EOS-1D X also includes manual audio level control, adjustable both before and during movie recording, an automatic setting, or it can be turned off entirely. Manual controls… what a concept (sarcasm). But hey.. it's about time and its grab to have them. Especially during the record event.A wind filter is also included. Sound can be recorded either through the internal monaural microphone or via an optional external microphone through the stereo mic input.I still suspect the internal mic is crap. Stereo mic input… crap… make an XLR adapter.What about output? Hopefully the A/V port will work. Would make the on-the-fly adjustments more useful.(See the full release here – http://usa.canon.com/cusa/about_canon?pageKeyCode=pressreldetail&docId=0901e024803b812e#)The camera is supposed to ship in March 2012From what I hear, the Canon announcement in early November is DIFFERENT, than this announcement and should be interesting.

In this video, Brian King shows you a sneak peek of a potential new feature for automatically replacing the dialog of a video clip with separately recorded audio with near perfect synchronization.Rich's Take:

If you're working with dual system sound (very common in DSLR workflow) you'll need to marry the camera footage with an external audio recording.The easiest way to sync is to let Final Cut Pro X try to do it automatically. As long as you have sufficient levels in your reference audio, we find the process is successful most of the time. The process works best when you need to sync a singe video file to a single audio file. Here’s how:

1. Select both and audio clip and a video clip in the Event Browser.

You can select multiple clips by holding down the command key and clicking on each clip. You’’ll know a clip is selected by the yellow selection box at the edge of each clip. 2. Choose Clip > Synchronize Clips (Opt+Cmd+G.) A new clip is created in the Event Browser. This new clip is a compound clip. Which means it is really a clip made up of at least two other clips.

3. Look for a new clip in the Event Browser.Newly synced clips do not have any Keywords attached. If you’re filtering your Event Browser using a Keyword collection you might not see the new clip. Be sure to switch your view to see all clips in the Event. You might want to tag the synced clip with additional keywords.

Depending on the size of the original files, this new clip could appear very quickly or take a while. If you can’t find the clip, simply select the search box in the upper right corner of the event library and type in “Synchronized clip.” You probably will find it after you type “synch.”

4. Select the clip in the Event Browser and click the Play button.

5. Watch the clip back and check for sync.You should hear both the reference audio and the dual system sound playback. Later you’ll learn how to discard the audio.

I have an app for my iPhone and iPad that saves my bacon time after time.I pressent to you, the essential and indispensible Sun Seeker: 3D Augmented Reality ViewerBy ozPDAYou see, I often find it difficult to know exactly where the sun is going to be when shooting time-lapse. When will it rise and even more importantly… WHERE!?!FeaturesThis app does several things that let you know a lot of detail about the sun and its position.1. You can use the GPS and magnetometer to find your location and determine sun data based on your position.

2. You can see a compass view that shows solar position, angle, and elevation for both day & night.

3. A map shows you elevation information for each hour in the day.

4. You can see details about sunrise, sunset, dusk, and twilight

5. You can compensate for time shift and enter a future date to use the app while scouting but see into the futureBut the COOLEST feature is by far is the 3D Augmented reality view. You can open the camera on your iPhone or iPad and actually see the horizon with an interactive display. You’ll see a helpful arrow to shot you where the sun is (even if its hidden). You also get a rich overlay which shows you where the sun is moving with times called out. This makes it much easier to frame your shots for time-lapse as well as now where and when the sun will rise or set.

The App sells for $5.99, but is an absolute steal. This hands down makes my time-lapse shooting better as I know how to frame my shots as well as when I need to be in position. Check out the app hereto buy or read more reviews. It is currently available for iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, an iPad.

I'll be a guest on Planet 5D for a live video chat this Monday (9/12) at 9 PM EST

The event is totally free to attend. We'll be talking about some recent DSLR video projects I've done as well as take a sneak peak at some new training that's in the works. The conversation is completely interactive as you can post questions that we'll answer live.

I just heard about a great webinar that's being held this Friday. Your chance to hear right from the Product Manager's mouth about Adobe Premiere Pro. Al is a great guy with a lovely sense of humor and whip smart skills (I say these things so my feature requests go through – oh but they are true).Here's the official blurbMore and more Final Cut editors are switching to Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.5 to become more efficient. In this week’s Ask a CS Pro, Product Manager Al Mooney will review some of the most important workflow tips and tricks to help editors, new to Premiere Pro, get up to speed quickly.

When: Friday, Aug.12Time: 12 p.m. -1p.m. PT Session start time for other time zones follows: http://bit.ly/qG22EXWhere: Connect Room: http://my.adobe.acrobat.com/askcspro. The room will open up 15 minutes before the session starts. At this time, please sign in as a guest to join.

I got to see some of this great footage and test at a sneak peek at NAB. This is a real-world comparison of DSLR and other CMOS type sensor cameras like the RED, Alexa, and Sony F3.

Episode 2, “Sensors & Sensitivity” of the three part series continues with tests covering sensitivity, resolution, compression and the relationship between them. These tests were designed and administered by Robert Primes ASC, director of the Single Chip Camera Evaluation (SCCE) and shown at 2K screenings around the world to indie filmmakers, event shooters, commercial DP’s, directors and corporate filmmakers alike. Their opinions on the footage are invaluable when it comes to understanding what all this data means in real world shooting situations.

I'm the featured guest on the next Motion Connect Live Class on Tuesday, August 9, 2011. It is a 100% free event and you can even win a copy of Creative Suite CS5.5 by attending. Be sure to register to be eligible to win. Really. Go do it it now. rsvp »This summer in the motion+connect Summer Series, you’ll have the opportunity to get ahead of the curve by learning first hand how these new features work and how to integrate them in your next project. Join us for the final session in our summer series – Production Premium: DSLR Workflow with Rich Harrington from RHED Pixel.It’s all about the DSLR workflow. We’ll explore ways the Adobe Production Premium CS5.5 workflow saves you time and money – providing an efficient workflow that delivers quality results on reliable schedules.

My Zacuto Electrnic Viewfinder showed up Saturday. I'm already using it on my second shoot tonight. This thing is so awesome in that I can really see things like exposure and focus with a true viewfinder. The buttons are easy to use, the unit feels solid (but weighs practically nothing).The best part? The fact that I've only had it a few days and Zacutto is already adding features via a free firmware update (love that).

Here's the complete user manual so you can check out the features.Download the current EVF Manual: Z-Finder EVF ManualHeres the free firmwareupdate (took 20 seconds to update)Current Version of Firmware: 1.01.00. Click Here To DownloadFirmware 1.01.00 includes the following updates:

Audio meters enabled that are able to be positioned in any of the four corners.

Battery meter can now be positioned in any of the four corners

Audio loop through enabled

Underscan now implemented

Can now save and recall Chroma, Contrast and brightness settings as presets.

Changes to color, brightness and contrast are now saved on power down and return on power up.

Red One, Sony FS100 scaling presets added

How To Upgrade Your FirmwareOnce you download the firmware the next thing you need to do is have a USB Thumb Drive formatted to FAT32. Please note this is not the default file system used for either Mac or PC and by formatting your thumb drive in this way it will erase all data that is currently on the thumb drive.1. Reformat a USB thumb drive as FAT (FAT 32 or MD-DOS). This can be done with Disk Utility on a Mac or by right-clicking in windows and choosing Format.2. Download the current firmware – Click Here To Download3. Copy the current firmware file to the FAT32 thumb drive (NOTE: File name must be evfupdate.fw)4. Insert thumb drive into EVF USB port5. Select UPDATE from the EVF menu6. Select USB DRIVE7. Select START UPDATE8. When prompted, power down and restart the unit. 9. Enjoy!Here is a detailed page about the EVF Units – http://www.zacuto.com/electronicviewfinder-faq

As disgruntled Apple Final Cut Pro users search out options for professional video editing, Adobe Systems has been a major beneficiary of the big switch since FCPX hit the market. In her interview with Jim Guerard of Adobe Systems, Debra Kaufman finds the result of Adobe's offering for former FCP users to be a big uptick in pro video users.

Creative COW has posted a great article that goes in-depth with both Adobe staff and users about why folks are switching to Adobe Premiere Pro.

Some of my favorite parts:

Adobe also created another key feature: ensuring integration of Adobe Premiere with the new generation of digital cameras. "We natively support all these camera formats from Sony to Panasonic, from RED to the Canon 5D Mark II," says Guerard. "You don't waste hours and hours of transcoding on ingest. The time and money we save people and the amount they're able to get done is huge."and

Who's making the switch to Adobe Premiere Pro? According to Guerard, the broadcast and indie filmmaker arenas are the most likely suspects. "In broadcast, there is so much happening with multi-screen delivery and distribution," says Guerard. "With Premiere, you can seamlessly take the content out to all kinds of platforms. And broadcasters know us and trust that we're dedicated to this market. They know they'll get a brand new release every year. For professional editors who count on their software application to pay the bills, they need that kind of partnership and collaboration."

I recently had the chance to spend two days working with Vincent Laforet going over a bunch of Adobe workflow stuff. He's a super talented guy and and we had a lot of fun exploring some of the geekiest corners of time-lapse, HDR, Raw video and more. The video above is an edit down of some of the stuff we discovered.The above video covers the following steps:

Setting up a project with Premiere, including what settings are best to modify, and what settings are best to leave alone.

How to bring media into your project through the Media Browser and use its features efficiently. Including how to organize clips, and bring them into your sequence timeline.

How to best create your sequence with optimum settings for the video you are working with and how to set up an adequate number of audio tracks.

How to set in and out points on your raw footage and either overwrite or insert a shot into your timeline, as well as a demonstration of Adobe’s patching feature.

A demonstration of the ripple tool (which adjusts one side of an edit), roll tool (which adjusts both sides of the edit), the razor tool (which splices footage), and the rate stretch tool (which changes the speed of your clip).

How to map your keyboard with custom hot keys, as well as set it up with FCP hot key commands (for those of you making the transition).

A demonstration of how to use the marker tool to create points on your timeline, and how to automatically fill those markers with footage from your media browser using the "automate to sequence" function.

How to admit that it’s okay to use the help menu

How to quickly apply color correction within Premiere without exporting to After Effects or a third party application, with an overview of the different controls.

How to import and edit your looks from RED CINE X into your Premiere timeline when you are working with RMD files, and how to bring those changes back into RED CINE X.

How to use clip handles and apply and modify transitions between clips.

How to send clips over to after effects from your Premiere project using Adobe’s Dynamic Link function, which updates all changes you make in both programs in real time.

A demonstration of the After Effects Warp Stabilizer and its different stabilization methods. Also a demonstration of the Vibrance plugin, and how you can work with such plugins while others are analyzing.

Demonstration of the Magic Bullet Colorista within After Effects (or Premiere).

How to output/export your Premiere project using Adobe Media Encoder, which is 64-bit.

How to create a "watch folder" that automatically encodes your footage to a preset codec.

In this video you’ll learn how to create a Photoshop file from within Adobe Premiere Pro. You’ll also learn how to use the Camera Raw module to develop a photo from a DSLR. We’ll even explore advanced options like the Lens Correction filter, Content-aware Fill, and the Content-aware Scale command to selectively resize a photo.For more videos and a complete training experience, check out An Editor's Guide to Adobe Premiere Pro from Peachpit Press — http://www.peachpit.com/premiereguide.

In the most scientific camera comparison to date, “The Great Camera Shootout 2011: a documentary of the Single Chip Camera Evaluation (SCCE)” premieres with Episode 1: “The Tipping Point.” The first episode of the 3-part web series examines three SCCE Tests: The Dynamic Range Test, The Under Exposure Test and The Over Exposure Test.

Just a quick reminder to SAVE THE DATE: October 11 - 13, 2011. The New York Post Production Conference in New York City. The show features dozens of expert training sessions for video, TV, film and new media professionals.

I've been a big fan of PluralEyes since I first met Bruce Sharpe (its inventor) at Podcast Expo (nearly five years ago).We use this product for both multi-camera projects and DSLR sync sound workflow.

We use it both in Final Cut Pro and Premiere Pro. Unfortunately, it can't work in Final Cut Pro X yet. I've pushed this tool to many of you, but wanted to let you know about its future.

Here's a quick update on the status from Bruce.

PluralEyes and Final Cut Pro X Questions and answers

We are getting lots of questions about PluralEyes and Final Cut Pro X. Here are the answers.Q: Does PluralEyes support FCP X today?A: No

Q: Will PluralEyes support FCP X?A: As with any new host release, we intend to support FCP X as soon as we can, but the technical information that we need to do so has not been released yet. In the meantime, the engineering team has begun the process of analyzing FCP X.Q: When?A: We can't make any promises. We haven't seen the technical specs to know how much effort will be required and we don't know when those specs will be available.Q: Will it be a free upgrade?A: Yes, for anyone who bought PluralEyes (for FCP 6 or 7) recently.Q: I thought I detected some weasel words in that last answer.A: Our updates have always been free up until now. We can't guarantee that an FCP X update will be free for those who didn't buy recently, but that would be our preference.Q: I see other plug-ins are supporting FCP X already. Why aren't you?A: There are several different developer kits. One of those has been released and is being used to update some plug-ins. The one we need has not been made available to us.Q: What about those of us still using FCP 6 and 7?A: PluralEyes will continue to support those versions for some time and through subsequent releases.

Q: Hey, wait. Doesn't FCP X have auto sync built in?A: As expected, a basic auto sync feature has been included in FCP X. We also expected that PluralEyes would be able to add value to FCP X, and our experience with it has confirmed that. We have heard from several customers that they still want PluralEyes.Q: I need PluralEyes for FCP X! Can't you do something?
A: We're doing everything we can think of. If you would like to make your wishes known to Apple, they provide a page where you are invited to give feedback about Final Cut Pro. http://www.apple.com/feedback/finalcutpro.html.Best regards,
The PluralEyes Team

Do note... PluralEyes and the companion product DualEyes are cross platform and available for several editing platforms.

I've posted additional updates to the article entitled My Response to David Pogue’s “Professional Video Editors Weigh In on Final Cut Pro X”I will continue to do so as people add useful clarifications and point out verifiable sources.Thank you for keeping the discussion going and keeping things civil.Updates here – http://www.richardharringtonblog.com/files/fcpx_response.phpThank you to all my friends for your support and keeping things civil during these difficult times. Remember to keep the focus on Apple (and not attack others in online forums or blogs). Keep posting and pass this article around to those who tell you that you are wrong. Be civil, reversing a "revolution" won't happen with angry words. The initial shock is over... move past anger. Make your opinion known with respectful words. Apple corporate is the one who made these decisions... address the cause of the problem.

David Pogue is a fine gentleman who I have met several times. He is smart, he is generous in his knowledge, and he is fair. He is not a shill and his article was trying to be helpful (I commend him for getting Apple to answer questions).

He is not a video editor. Nor does he try to pass himself off as one.

I am sorry this response is SO long. It's technical and it's important I be clear and detailed (I've already been criticized and accused of being an Apple hater or colluding against them).

*Updated – 6/24 8:05 AM – I just got a great phone call and a few emails. I am inserting some updates in Orange. I will add corrections and clarifications as they come in (and I can verify).*Updated – 6/25 5:26 pm (I am adding additional context and links to article). Also be sure to look at the many comments and answers below the article. Please keep posting issues you find (but keep things civil here). The time for anger is past... let's work to get a clear list of issues and give Apple some context as to what we want and why.Here is the original article – http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/06/23/professional-video-editors-weigh-in-on-final-cut-pro-x/*Updated – 6/25 5:26 PM – I won't call this winning, because it is not about that. But David now says "Having read through hundreds of comments from professionals, both civil and uncivil, I’m now convinced: Final Cut Pro X may indeed be ready for the future. But for professional video editors, it’s not yet ready for the present."Please read http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/06/24/the-quarrel-over-final-cut-continues/. Stop beating up on David... but do head over and read it. If you work in pro video, voice your support for his reversal.I would like to briefly respond. But before I do, a brief overview.

I have been a certified instructor for three of the A’s that make video editing software.

I have produced Final Cut Pro tutorials which have been given away for free for years as podcasts through iTunes.

I have written several books on Final Cut Pro (as well as other products).

I do use other company’s tools (always have).

My opinions here are based on owning a 10-person video production company which has built its infrastructure around Final Cut Pro for 10 years.

I am not even going to touch on the challenges of completely retraining my staff and myself on something that is so radically different. You thought people whined when Microsoft added the Ribbon to Office...go look at what editors are saying in the App Store reviews. Remember only people who actually BOUGHT the application are allowed to rate it.

*Updated – 6/25 5:29 PM – The comments below this article as well as the forum over at Creative COW are excellent places to see the confusion. The FCPX techniques forum is a great place to get help too.Hopefully that’s enough context... Let’s begin. (Red is Pogue’s summary of the complaint. Blue is his answer (with input from Apple). Green is my response.

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“Complaint: There’s no multicamera editing. In the old FCP, you could import the footage from various cameras that covered an event (say, a concert) from different angles simultaneously, and then easily cut back and forth between them while editing. It was a star feature of Final Cut, and it’s gone from FCP X.”“Answer: Apple intends to restore this feature in an update, calling it “a top priority.” Until it does, here’s a stopgap facsimile of multicam editing: If you drag two clips into parallel timeline tracks, you can choose Clip->Synchronize Clips. By comparing their audio tracks, the program aligns the clips exactly. Now, each time you select a piece of the upper video track and press the V key (“disable”), you are effectively cutting to what’s on the lower video track.”My Take: Final Cut Pro could previously edit up to 128 angles. While that is a tad excessive for most, using three to nine angles is very practical. We regularly cut programs such as talk shows, concerts, and events using this feature. The method described by Pogue is like telling a NASCAR driver to turn over their car, strap one roller skate on, and push as fast as possible with the other foot.*Updated 6/24 8:27 AM – In order to edit a lot of angles, you used to have to use several hard drives and they had to be really fast. We'd also off the option of using a a flavor of the Offline RT codec, then easily relinking. It was complex (at times), but powerful.

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Complaint: You can’t share a project with other editors. In professional editing companies, editors routinely exchange projects. But in FCP X, “all of your project organization is now globally contained in the application rather than in your project file. You literally have to give that other editor your entire computer,” writes one blogger.Answer: Not true. You can share your project, your files, or both. If the other editors already have the raw video files, you can hand over the project file. The other editors can inspect the Project Library; on its Info panel, they can click “Modify Event References” to reconnect the project to their own copies of the media files.If the other editors don’t have the raw files, the various commands in the File menu let you move the project file, the media files, or both to another computer on the network, to another hard drive or whatever.My Take: I am glad that some of my initial fears are wrong. However this command is much less robust than the previous Final Cut Pro media manager. It seems to lack the ability to force a file to reconnect or to invoke a search if the file says it can’t be found. The Media Manager seems to also lack ability to trim media with specific handles to make the media smaller. Gary Adcock (my genius technical editor) Offers this useful summary

Duplicate Project — Functions much like the FCP7 media manager did. You can choose the Project only, Project & all References or Project with just used media. • Move Project — Will move all media and Associated to new volume. This can be used for uploading a field edit to a desktop system. It too can move just project or project and media • Merge Events — This can combine two copies of the same project into a single Project file. This can be used to bring last night's changes you did on the train into your desktop at the office. • Consolidate media — The is the clean your desk command. • Organize Project – This will consolidate media for the scratch disk only.

My Take: With all of these options there are still things missing. Also despite my best efforts to keep project and media split, a ton of files still end up on my internal drive in the movie folder (especially when I use generators). FCPX seems to be always rendering. So when I tweak an effect, it re-renders and those files keep adding up. In the "old days" you'd get lots of precomputes you'd manually clean up on an Avid (or other system). This problem was solved years ago by all manufacturers it seems. Render files are usually smarter these days. Also, being able to work in real-time and experiment is great. But I want to choose WHEN I render. Otherwise I am using machine power and disk space unnecessarily. I like to render when I leave the room. Not while I'm sitting in front of my nonlinear editing system.You also have the ability to transcode to only two flavors of ProRes (a proxy file or a high quality file). Previously you could manage the project to any installed codec (format) that you wanted (including third-party formats). This made collaboration and exchanging media with others much easier. There are five flavors of ProRes... why can I only choose two of them (let alone everything else).Gary points out that the transcode settings appear to follow logic.

That 8-bit material and DSLR videos files are rendered to ProRes 422.

Animation and Uncompressed codecs are converted to Pro Res HQ if 1920 x 1080 or less

Animation and Uncompressed codecs are converted to Pro Res 4444 if 2K or larger

Turn off the Optimize media check box to cut your re-rendering in half

Gary catches a potentially troublesome problem:"If you start a project by using the “ prefs based on first clip” and then import content, all renders will be based on that content level. I found this out when starting with PR4444 from Alexa and found all of these huge renders on my system."

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Complaint: You can’t freely organize your media files. “There is no way to customize the organization of the project media,” gripes one blogger.Answer: You can customize the organization freely if you’re willing to understand the new keyword tagging system. Dragging a clip into a folder essentially applies a new keyword to it.My Take: I am glad we have these options. But there are fewer ways to customize the view. You can’t seem to add custom columns. There are collections, but not the simple ability to use folders and nests of folders to organizer. Imagine if you had no folder structure on your Mac hard drive. Just Spotlight. You could only organize by tagging keywords onto all your stuff. You also can’t organize media while any background tasks are running. Such as rendering, transcoding, stabilizing, etc. Background tasks are frequently happening as things automatically render. Change a color effect, it renders. Adjust the size it renders. In the past you would choose when to render. Now you have to keep opening the Background Tasks panel and canceling. *Updated – 6/24 8:30 AM – You can make folders in events with a right click on the event in the Event Library. It is very different in appearance than FCP 7, but does seem to work better than I thought. I stand by my lack of creating custom columns as well as the challenges of constantly looking from the far left edge of my screen to the right to see the Events Library and Inspector panels. Wish I could move panels next to each other.*Updated – 6/25 5:57 PM – Turns out you can also drag keywords into folders (and be sure to learn how to use collections too).Gary says "I found the keywording for organization is like having Google searching my project, it’s faster and you can sort the materials based on any variety of keywords or even strings of words."My Take: I agree this is awesome... but I'd also like the ability to use the thousands of projects I've organized already. I'd also like to not let one client see another client's media. The current media browsing seems to be based on the idea that you only have a couple of projects. I may grow to like events... but right now I don't. Events didn't make it into Aperture (from iPhoto). Projects did. By the way I can have many libraries in Aperture making it easier to isolate client's work from one another (as well as personal projects from work). Maybe FCPX and iMovie could grow a little more distant (as well as over useful documentation like this – http://www.apple.com/aperture/iphoto-to-aperture/how.html that address how to move projects and libraries in).

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Complaint: No Reconnect command when media is offline. When media is offline, you get a red screen with an exclamation point. There is no Reconnect Media command, as there used to be.Answer: True. Then again, the old Reconnect dialog box got people into a lot of trouble; they often reconnected a project to the wrong files, or the wrong versions of files.FCP X assigns a unique behind-the-scenes identifier to every single video clip. When you reconnect the missing hard drive, your project reconnects to its original files automatically, even if you have moved them around or renamed the hard drive. You can’t reconnect to the wrong thing.My Take: I am glad that some of my initial fears are wrong. However this command is much less robust than the previous Final Cut Pro media manager. It seems to lack the ability to force a file to reconnect to a new version (such as an updated graphic file) or to invoke a search if the file says it can’t be found. Finding the information is a little tricky and involves opening a panel. It also appears that you also can’t invoke the re-connect command unless the media is offline.While the command COULD get you into trouble if you made bad choices. It also gave you important controls that professionals really needed.*Updated – 6/25 6:10 PM – Gary pointed out to me that this seems to be a huge change. Previously Final Cut Pro just remembered the file pathways. Now it is actually polling and tracking media via a database. (based on SQL actually). Updated files are automatically included as part of the metadata management. This also means that when you add a new volume to your system, X will poll it, looking for FCP event or content flags in the media. (He is still trying to find out what this file is called and where it is hiding on the drive).My take: Again this sounds better, but we need to ability to force a re-connect. We also need to be able to backup that database for safety.

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Complaint: You can’t assign audio tracks. “We send all our audio files out for ProTools mixing,” writes one editor in an e-mail. “We always put narration on Track 1 and 2, interviews on Tracks 3 – 6, and so on. So our audio engineers know exactly what’s on which track. But FCP X’s ‘trackless’ design makes that impossible.”Answer: For now, you can use a utility called Automatic Duck Pro Export 5.0 ($200 to upgrade) to create and manage these tracks automatically when you export to ProTools. Apple says it will restore this feature to FCP X.My Take: That’s $200 to upgrade from a full version of Automatic Duck (not a $200 upgrade to FCP). It’s $500 new. Gone is also the version to map specific output when going to professional tape formats (a frequent requirement for professional delivery). In fact if its not HDV or DV, tape support seems to be gone all together.But it's not just ProTools output. Several of the exchange methods are gone. XML is the biggest deal which would allow this tool to continue to communicate with the now discontinued Apple Color, Davinci Resolve, Adobe After Effects, and many other tools that people use for special purposes and collaboration.*Updated – 6/25 6:16 PM – Gary says that the XML should work in Lion. Also that the necessary hooks are in FCPX already. He says he can also find output libraries for DPX and Open EXR that are already visible. He also feels that there should be some changes in how hardware can be accessed with Lion.

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Complaint: No custom frame rates or custom frame sizes. Editors are complaining that you can’t specify unusual frames-per-second rates or frame dimensions.Answer: Not true. When you create a new project, you can specify any frame rate or size you want, right in the Import dialog box. You can also change the frame rate or size when you export the finished product — if you’re willing to spend $50 on Compressor.My Take: Sorry ... you are 95% wrong. If you choose custom in Final Cut Pro 7, you have the option to enter just about any size or rate. When I choose custom in FCPX... I can choose from several standard options. But I can’t enter any value. If you choose Other, your choices are:

640 x 480 or 960 x 540

23.98, 24, 25, 29.97, or 30

Final Cut Pro 7 was resolution independent. You could enter custom sizes, pixel aspect ratios, and frame rates. This made it a great tool for producing irregular sized videos for web or presentation use as well as doing things like custom video walls for installations or retail.Changing the frame rate on export is not what we’re asking for. Being able to work with a setting that matches footage or lets you work with custom settings as needed is gone. You also cannot save you own easy setups or sequence presets that let you store the settings you’ve made for easy access.

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Complaint: No support for RED digital cameras. The RED camera is a favorite of filmmakers; it records incredibly high-resolution video directly to a hard drive. But FCP X can’t import its files.Answer: Apple is working with RED to create a plug-in that will give native RED support to FCP X. In the meantime, you can set your RED camera to shoot and capture video in the QuickTime format, which FCP X imports just fine. Or you can use RED’s free conversion program, which converts its own files into the Apple ProRes format, which FCP X loves because it’s so much faster and easier to edit than the native RED files.My Take: David, you don’t understand why people choose to shoot RED. The benefit of shooting raw video is the same benefit as pro photographers choosing raw stills over JPEG. Shooting or converting to QuickTime throws away A LOT of information and latitude in adjustments.What pros wanted was the same level of control they get in Adobe Premiere Pro or Red Cine X. The ability to truly grade color, work with high dynamic range features and more. They also need greater controls on media management and reconnection. The reason why pros are so furious is that Apple and RED had the closest working relationship in the industry. People don’t understand why the program would ship without support.*Updated – 6/24 8:40 AM – It's not just RED... it's other Raw formats too (like Alexa). A few pointed out that we have 4K sequence presets, but no easy workflow for getting in 4K footage.

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Complaint: No ability to pause or fork the Autosave. Final Cut Pro autosaves your work as you go. Editors complain, therefore, that they can’t save different versions of a project as they go along.Answer: You can duplicate your project at any time, thus freezing it in its current condition. Just click it in the Project Library and choose File -> Duplicate Project.My Take: David... have you ever been affected when an application like Microsoft Word crashed? Sure you could open up the last version you CHOSE to save ... but sometimes the Auto-Save comes to the rescue and you get back work you would have lost.You could choose when and how often FCP auto-saved. It also stored multiple versions automatically. This let you go back in time when clients changed their mind. It also could save you if a project became corrupt. While these don’t happen every day ... they happen more than we like. The new method requires you to choose to backup, not set an interval. Isn’t this why Apple invented Time Machine in the first place (which does let you choose how often to backup). I don’t know how Time Machine and FCP project files will work ... but I am less than confident that I will have the same level of control I do now.*Updated – 6/24 8:33 AM – Several point out Lion's autosave abilities. I can't comment further as I don't have it running since it's not shipping. What about those who can't go to Lion, however? *Updated – 6/25 6:23 PM – Also, what's big is the ability to run the Restore command which let you choose which backup to use.

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Complaint: Can’t specify the scratch disks. In previous versions of Final Cut Pro, you could choose individual hard drives for storing your project’s render (preview) files. But if you didn’t know what you were doing, things could get messy. For example, you might store the project on one drive, and then render files on another; then, later, you would open up the project when the render-file disk wasn’t available. You would have to re-render the whole project.Answer: In FCP X, the render files are stored on the same disk as the project, so they don’t get separated. You can still store your files on any drive; you determine that by where you store the project file.My Take: Duplicate the project also starts to spread files out to more folders. Those renders, pre-computes, and cache files are with the project. You choose to duplicate, there’s more to copy. That means time and disk space. In the past, these render files were in a folder of your choosing. Duplicating the project was no big deal as the project just looked at the files in the same folder that you specified. Less time, less disk space (which in my world means saved money, happier clients, and a greater chance of dinner with the family).Also this level of control is less than before. I could choose to but my project files in one place and renders on another. Like I said before ... most people choose to split their project files to a different location than render files and media files. This is because the project file is usually small, and you want to back it up (or even keep it on a USB thumb drive for easy portability). The media and render files on the other hand need to be on a performance hard drive.*Updated – 6/25 6:27 PM – A new issue: A trusted colleague (who asked not to be named) raised a huge potential issue. Personally, I have not been able to fully test this, but this person would know.

It appears that the new FCPX doesn't work with Apple's (previous) XSAN system

You can only save to an HFS+ drive.

This also means no go for most networked storage systems as Events appear to be incompatible with a XSAN, AFP, NFS or SMB volume

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Complaint: Can’t output to tape. Videotape is on the way out — you would be hard pressed even to find a camcorder that takes tape anymore — so it’s not built into FCP X. This is one of several ways that FCP X is clearly a program designed more for the future than the past.Answer: You can buy tape-deck control programs like AJA VTR Exchange and Black Magic Media Express. AJA and Black Magic are two major makers of add-on circuit boards for professional video editing. These apps work with their boards.My Take: Tape is NOT dead (although we’d like it to be in many cases). Tapes don’t demagnetize though like hard drives on a shelf. They also outlast hard drives in most cases.TV stations want tape. My government clients want tape. My nonprofit association clients want tape. Tape is typically required by the vast majority of clients that professionals serve (those that make their living editing video). David... Print is dead. It’s on it’s way out. Could the New York Times stop printing newspapers tomorrow? You may want to (environmental concerns, costs of paper and delivery, those annoying children who throw newspaper and yell that they want their $2 back)? Print is not dead ... neither is tape. Are they dying? Yes... a SLOW and PAINFUL death.When Apple killed the floppy disk, you could still buy them yourself and hook them up. Even though Apple doesn’t let you burn a Blu-ray disc, they let you buy a burner yourself. The built in the “hooks” that let hardware and software manufacturers connect.In the past, companies like AJA and Apple collaborated closely. When Apple would ship software, new hardware would be out. In fact, old hardware would have updates that made it work too. These devices often cost $1,000–$5,000 dollars. We have five of these devices in my offices. They are currently serving as paper weights when we launch Final Cut Pro X.So you say just use the old version. But how long will Apple ship updates and support the old software. What happens when your computer fails and you have to buy a new one. Will you be able to install 5 year old software on it? Never mind the fact that pro customers feel they deserve to get to use a 64-bit editing application. Why? Because other companies have 64-bit applications on the Mac that edit video quite well AND support the same hardware that Final Cut Pro 7 supported.

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Complaint: Can’t export AAF or OMF files. These formats are successors to EDL. They let you export your project to other programs, like Avid, Quantel or Pro Tools, for more sophisticated editing.Answer: Automatic Duck ProExport 5.0 adds AAF and OMF exporting to FCP X. There will be other companies offering similar export plugins (including EDL, by the way), once Apple publishes its XML programming guidelines (API).My Take: Why are pros mad? Because all of these formats (as well as EDL and XML were supported). David, how would you feel if you couldn’t get your photos out of iPhoto? You could sync them to your iPad ... you could look at them on your Mac. But printing? Opening the image in Photoshop? Handing it off to a website authoring or page layout tool? Nope.These exchange formats allow professionals to collaborate. Would you like special effects, great color correction, and a superior soundtrack in your next Hollywood film? Not gonna get it (or at least not yet). We’re told we have to wait for third-party folks. Who all have to rewrite their tools to standards that aren’t even fully clear or released.*Updated – 6/25 6:28 PM While we're talking about XML export, how about the ability to send to Apple Color?Commenters on this blog even point out the difficulty in sending clips to Apple Motion (a previously supported workflow).I also have heard from many plug-in developers crying foul. A couple people seem to have had early access and knowledge. Apple lists two plug-in packages on their site. What about the 100+ companies that had tools working before? We now must wait ... and hope these companies can afford to redevelop and redeploy. We’ll also have to repay for tools that worked just fine because these (often small) companies will have to scramble to redevelop their tools to keep their customers.*Updated – 6/25 6:29 PM I've been told that some plugins work by "luck" since they were designed with the previous version of Motion in mind. I do not know the validity of this statement. I do know that I have talked and read about many developers who are crying foul.Speaking of secrecy... there’s a lot of confusion throughout the reseller community that helped ensure local sales and support for Apple products. The training companies seem to be confused and their trainers are too. I am not allowed to say more here.

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Complaint: Can’t connect an external monitor. Pros work with Final Cut on the Mac screen, but they prefer to view the actual edited video on a dedicated second screen. While Final Cut Pro X works just fine with a second computer monitor — you just choose Window -> Show Events on Second Display (or Window -> Show Viewer on Second Display) — there are complaints that it can’t connect to an external video monitor (TV), which pros feel offers better color fidelity.Answer: Just as before, you need a Mac Pro with a video-output card in order to connect a TV monitor. Apple expects that the output-card companies will soon offer the necessary drivers for FCP X; AJA, one of the major makers of these boards, already offers beta versions of such drivers. Apple is working with Black Magic to offer drivers for its boards.My Take: You have several mistakes here ... but I would make the same mistakes if I tried to talk about the professional printing presses your company uses to make newspapers.

You do not need a Mac Pro. Several manufacturers made devices that use FireWire connections. They also use the Express Card slot (which seems to be on the way out). We suspect that Thunderbolt will help here too (Blackmagic showed this at NAB this year).

It’s not a TV. We use higher quality monitors. Often with unusual connections like HD-SDI or professional component connections. We also run the signal out the hardware tools that help us calibrate and legalize the color for broadcast (just like how you have to fix out of gamut images for color printing). The method Apple has now does not let us see a true video signal. It also doesn’t work if you have two computer monitors and a video output card attached. It’s one or the other (at least according to the AJA documentation). Be sure you READ that documentation ... it’s filled with apologies. The signal Final Cut Pro X sends out is not in the correct color space or proper size. David, I’d like you to switch the New York times to consumer inkjet printers... tell me if that would work for you?

What about the others? There are more companies besides AJA and Blackmagic Design. What’s happening there? The lack of information is what scares professionals. People want a road map ... especially in this economy. I know companies need some secrecy. The keyword is some.

*Updated – 6/25 6:33 PM – Gary Adcock responds with greater detail (Gary has consulted and worked with many hardware companies... those who know of him can more than certify this is his expertise.Gary says: "All of the hardware solutions currently available are not of a quality that pros can accept. Without the ability to control audio and video timing signals direct from within the application all anyone is looking at is an RGB desktop preview being converted back to YUV by the hardware to make that signal viewable via HD/SDi.Adding 3rd party hardware output to previous versions of FCP forced the application to respond as a professional tool in regard to timing inaccuracies, issues with low performance storage or color issues when outputting content. In FCPX we have only Apple’s word that the output files would conform to SMPTE standards and Practices.My Take: For those of you who just had their heads explode... it basically means don't plan to submit anything you do to a broadcast station or even expect it to look the same when you play it back on a television. This is just huge! Even bigger here is the question of which hardware can work and which cannot. Unusually the support has come for only certain products in AJA's line. Some of the newer products have not had anything said about them yet. I'm still looking for info on other manufacturer's as well.

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Complaint: Can’t import old FCP files.Answer: As I noted in my column, this is true; your old projects are stranded forever in the older FCP program. You’ll have to keep both programs on your hard drive, and edit the old projects in the old program. When you install the new FCP, your old copy is safely preserved.My Take: This is partially true. Many users have reported problems with having both on the same system. Apple even has a very detailed and useful article on the topic (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4722). This document provides critical information. It’s not called out in the App Store. It’s not called out in the installer. Apple could have released it two days before Final Cut Pro X and said “Get ready for Final Cut Pro X.”Nope... no communication or warnings on how to avoid potentially large problems. In fact I found out about the new software from Twitter. It didn’t even make it to the Apple home page. The article I mentioned isn’t on the product page or even the support page in a prominent position.The application is also not “safely” preserved as you have to move things back and rename things if you want to actually use the applications in many workflows. Apple says “Note: Final Cut Server, Podcast Producer, Software Updates for Final Cut Studio (2009), and some third-party workflows and tools may require that the Final Cut Studio (2009) applications remain in their original location in the Applications folder.”Also, would you accept that you couldn’t open up your iPhoto library with future versions of the application? How about if all the music you imported into iTunes would no longer play and all your organization and playlists were gone. Oh, and what if Adobe decided that Photoshop CS5 (the 64-bit version) couldn’t open up files from the past.The argument of "finish your project before you upgrade" is crazy. Clients always come back with changes. Filmmakers decided to make updates and re-release. Even hobbyists want to go back and look at something they did and potentially reuse some of their editing. Even if both applications are properly installed, you can’t have them open at the same time. Want to look over a FCP 7 project, you can't launch both apps as it will prompt you to close FCP X.*Updated – 6/25 6:39 PM – Visit https://discussions.apple.com/message/15469892#15469892.Scroll halfway down the page to this post.FranklyFilm — Re: FCPX, just the tip of the iceberg — Jun 23, 2011 6:35 AM Mail form Randy Ubillos, the designer of FCP X “FCP7 projects do not have enough information in them to properly translate to FCPX (in FCP7 all of the clip connections live in the editor's head, not in the timeline). We never expected anyone to switch editing software in the middle of a project, so project migration was not a priority. Final Cut Pro X 1.0 is the beginning of a road, not the end.”My Take: I do not know if this is true. It is on Apple's website. I would assume given how widespread it is being pushed around the net... someone would respond or clarify. I hope this is not true, but I have now heard this same information from different sources more than 10 times. This rumor or statement needs confirmation. This is the DEAL BREAKER for many.

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The Bottom Line: Apple has followed the typical Apple sequence: (1) throw out something that’s popular and comfortable but increasingly ancient, (2) replace it with something that’s slick and modern and forward-looking and incomplete, (3) spend another year finishing it up, restoring missing pieces.These are fair statements. Remember your feelings on iMovie ’08 (http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/08/17/apple-takes-a-step-back-with-imovie-08/)? Apple reversed course and continued to make the previous version of iMovie available.With Final Cut Pro X, Apple discontinued to entire Final Cut ecosystem in one swoop. Final Cut Server, Color, Soundtrack Pro, Cinema Tools, and DVD Studio Pro. "So what" you say ... just use the old one.

But you can’t buy the old one from Apple any more. In fact I have been told that many resellers were asked to ship their stock back to Apple.

Many were waiting to upgrade from older versions until Final Cut Pro X shipped. Now they find out their computers won’t work with the new Final Cut Pro.Several computers aren’t supported due to their graphics cards. Even machines that are slated to work on Lion may not work with Final Cut Pro X because they lack Open CL compatibility. Here is the list (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4664).

The exact same time the new product started shipping, the old one went away. Yes, some stores still have inventory, but not Apple (apparently). The existing stock will run out and people don’t know if will be refreshed.

There was not sufficient details warning people about compatibility issues.

If you go to Apple’s webpage and try to look up old documentation or links about the old Final Cut Pro, it redirects you to the new page. If you visit the support page and try to download an update to a previous version (often needed after changing machines or doing a software restore). Guess what, its sends you to the App Store to buy Final Cut Pro X. I tried several of the links on the support page (http://support.apple.com/downloads/#final%20cut%20studio). Go see what happens

*Updated – 6/27 12:17 PM – Looks like most of the links are back to working on the support page. That's a GREAT thing.

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Professional editors should (1) learn to tell what’s really missing from what’s just been moved around, I agree, but the training and support industry is scrambling to catch up.(2) recognize that there’s no obligation to switch from the old program yetThat is correct. But pros were told it would be “awesome.” I guess that word means different things to different people. And if you need to update your old software, most of the links on the downloads page keep sending me to the App Store to buy the new one. Subtle, I know.(3) monitor the progress of FCP X and its ecosystem, and especially (4) be willing to consider that a radical new design may be unfamiliar, but may, in the long term, actually be better.Most in the Final Cut Pro community like change. They also wish that the investment in time as well as thousands in equipment would continue to be supported.David, your article was helpful and answered many questions for me. I know you can reach me on the phone. I raise a few more questions that maybe your Apple contacts can answer.Will I ever be able to import a layered Photoshop file? This is a common workflow that lets editors easily work with graphics.*Updated – 6/24 8:41 AM – You can import the file (I knew this) but layers are flattened. Motion supports this workflow, but Final Cut Pro X no longer does. This was a common scenario.What about volume licenses? How do companies buy multiple copies for the employees to use? Do they really need to set up an iTunes account for each and need to use elaborate combinations of credit cards or gift cards?What about educational licenses? Apple gained much of its success from students who learned it in school then moved into the workplace. Students always got a discount as did schools. What about them?What is the intention with the apparent decimation of the previous ecosystem? Are the broken links and missing documents temporary? Will we be able to buy the application in 2 months (or next year)? Will there be software updates ... if so for how long?Will there be physical distribution? Broadband access is not a reality for much of the world. I have interfaced with editors in Africa where broadband is scarce. I have also talked with several who pay by the megabyte for data (and pay a lot). There are many places in the world where the user will pay far more to download the software than to purchase it. What if I need to reactivate (such as after restoring from a backup) but I can’t get Internet access?In conclusion, I appreciate your article. You attempted to get to the bottom of things. I hope I have opened some new doors here for you to knock on. Keep making the world a better place for techno geeks.There are SEVERAL posts in the comments about missing and confusing features. Since I have violated every rule about length of a blog post, I will respond below. Apple (or others looking to develop new products) please see the list below. There are also several other places that have good lists going.Thank you to all my friends for your support and keeping things civil during these difficult times. Remember to keep the focus on Apple (and not attack others in online forums or blogs). Keep posting and pass this article around to those who tell you that you are wrong. Be civil, reversing a "revolution" won't happen with angry words. The initial shock is over... move past anger. Make your opinion known with respectful words. Apple corporate is the one who made these decisions... address the cause of the problem.

Join Jim Guerard, vice president and general manager of Professional Video, as he discusses the massive shifts happening in the industry today, how Adobe is responding through rapid innovation, and the company's pillars of focus moving forward.It's always great when the companies that make the tools that I use are actually open. Here's where Adobe is going. Listen close to some of the points (it's a tad dry... but trust me... LISTEN to what's being said).

We've got a new post over at my site Triple Expsoure – www.3Exposure.com. The site is all about Time-lapse, HDR, and Panoramic photography.Scott and Rich discuss video style tripods (which are helpful for both Time-lapse and DSLR video). Many traditional photography shooters are switching styles and trying them out too as they are easy to quickly recompose a shot then lock it down solid for HDR too. Learn about Miller tripods and what features matter (and which are overkill).Head over to check it out

My brand new book on Adobe Premiere Pro is written and off to the presses. It was written specifically for the many professional editors who already know how to edit using tools like Final Cut Pro and Avid, but need to now learn Adobe Premiere Pro. The book is a fast-paced, but thorough exploration of what an experienced video editor needs. The idea literally came from my own staff who were frustrated by all the existing books and classes on the market. The official description:In this intermediate level book three experienced editors take students step-by-step through the entire editing process in Premiere Pro, from file creation all the way through output. Along the way they’ll learn the ins-and-outs of (or “to do things such as”) file management, essential and intermediate editing techniques, color correction, audio mixing and repairing, titling and effects, and delivering their video onto tape, the web, and mobile devices. They’ll learn to work within the Adobe ecosystem as well, getting up to speed quickly on time saving tools such as Dynamic Link, Adobe Story, and more.

As they work through sections, they’ll find references to engaging videos that accompany the book, giving them a visual and audio frame of reference and solidifying their knowledge of the program.

Students will learn to:

Quickly organize their existing Final Cut or Avid projects, or create new projects to use right away in Premiere Pro

Understand how to use Premiere Pro with other Adobe software

Edit their footage the way they like but with tips and techniques from authors with tons of experience in all the editing programs and who speak your language.

Put their skills to work immediately by using the accompanying lesson files to work through the steps in the book

From the Creative COW DSLR Essentials Podcast, Robbie Carman and Richard Harrington bring you part two in a three-part series on creating time lapse. This episode covers shooting techniques for time-lapse.

With the release of After Effects 5.5, Adobe introduces an entirely new method for stabilizing footage that can also be useful to video editors. The Warp Stabilizer can remove jitter caused by camera movement. The effect is very useful as it can remove both unstable parallax type movements (where images appear to shift on planes). An extra benefit for those shooting with CMOS type sensors (such as those on DSLR cameras) is the ability to compensate for the rolling shutter which can lead to an optical bending of material that has strong vertical lines.

1. Select a clip in an After Effects composition. You can also send clips from Adobe Premiere Pro to After Effects via Dynamic Link.2. Choose Animation > Stabilize Motion. The Warp Stabilizer effect is applied to the layer. The footage is immediately analyzed between its in and out-points. The analysis process takes two steps and you’ll see a banner across the footage as it’s analyzed. You can also see a progress update in the Effect Controls panel. While the analysis is in progress, you can keep working in the project.

3. You can enhance the effect with several useful options for the Stabilization Method:

Result – You can choose Smooth Motion to retain the general camera movement (albeit stabilized) or No Motion to attempt remove all camera movement.

Smoothness – This option specifies how much of the original camera movement should be retained for Smooth Motion. Use a higher value for maximum smoothness.

Method – There are four methods available. The two most powerful are Perspective and Subspace Warp. If either method creates too much distortion you can try switching to Position, Scale and Rotation or just Position.

If you want to see just how much the stabilizer is actually doing, set the Framing to Stabilize Only. This will show you black around the edges. If the motion looks unnatural, you can always adjust the Smoothness settings.4. You can also control how the borders are drawn for the effect. With the Framing pop-up you can choose to simply stabilize the shot. You can also tell After Effects to automatically scale or even synthesize new edge content.

5. If you see vertical distortion or warping in the shot, enable the Rolling Shutter Ripple option under the Advanced category. In order to use these advanced options you need to use either the Subspace Warp or Perspective method for Stabilization. Be sure to experiment with both methods as the choice may vary based on the source footage.nIf you want maximum stabilization quality you can choose the Detailed Analysis option under the Advanced category. This makes the Analysis phase do extra work to find elements to track. This option is much slower, but produces superior results.6. Use the RAM preview option to preview the effect as needed.

As a content creator respect the rights of others. I repeatedly see the rights of others abused all the time in video production. Be sure to preserve the rights of others as you’d expect your rights to be upheld.

Music – This is the greatest area of abuse across the video industry. There are affordable stock music options for purchasing or licensing music. You can also hire a composer or use software tools to create your own music. What you cannot do is used recorded music made by others. Giving credit is not enough. I am sickened by the number of videos I see created using copyrighted music and the number of excuses and loopholes others try to give to justify its use.

Stock Footage – Make sure the footage you choose to use is properly acquired. There are numerous libraries and sources for licensing footage. Some are buy out libraries, others offer per clip purchases, even still you can find public domain collections. Make sure your footage is properly licensed.

Client Provided Assets – Just because the client gives you materials doesn’t mean they are free to use. I’ve faced many instances of clients providing copyrighted materials that they did not have rights to use. Their assurances of “it’s okay” or “this is an internal use only video” would hold no bearing to my being held liable for violating the law. Be certain that what you are given to use is materials that are properly cleared.

A wireless microphone goes a long, long way towards a flexible production. This setup also makes it easier for a small or one-person crew where the camera operator is also running audio. It’s much easier to work with moving talent then to have to chase after them with cables connecting you–less tripping and more recording.

There is potential of radio interference, when working with wireless microphones, so be sure to get a unit that offers the ability to use different frequencies. Most kits include a lavaliere microphone, an XLR adapter for other microphones, and a wireless receiver to plug into the camera.

You need to be aware of a recent development regarding the use of wireless RF microphones. As of June 12, 2010 the FCC has made it illegal to use any equipment that operates in the 700 MHz band. This set of frequencies has been reassigned for use by emergency personnel only. Many wireless mics previously on the market operated in this frequency range and must be replaced. More information about this ruling can be found on the FCC website at http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/wirelessmicrophones.

Be certain to actively monitor your audio with headphones. Besides interference, there are a few common problems. One is that batteries can wear out, which can introduce dropouts and noise. The most common problem though is human error. With two off switches (one on the microphone and one on the receiver) it’s easy to leave the microphone turned off. Remember, you plug into the camera and listen to what the camera is recording to know you are getting good audio.For more on video production check out Professional Web Video and From Still to Motion.

We recently held an open house at RHED Pixel for our clients. During the event we gave several informational presentations. We recorded these and intend to edit and release over the next few months. In the meantime, here are the slides.

When it comes time to edit your video, the hard drives you use are going to have a huge impact on the performance of your system. No matter how much RAM you have or how powerful of a video card, you just won't get real-time performance if your drives are a bottleneck.

Important Factors

There are three factors when choosing a disk for video editing:

Speed. The speed of drive is the biggest factor on what media you can play off it. Drives like internal laptop drives or bus-powered USB drives are generally not fast enough to edit HD video.

Capacity. When you start to edit HD video, you'll quickly use up disk space. For example, each minute of video shot on a Canon 5D Mark II is about 320 MB. In order to get the storage you need, you may invest in multiple drives or drives that are striped together for a performance RAID.

Redundancy. The last thing you'll want to happen to your video footage is to lose it. Most video creators choose to back up their footage to two or more drives or to use additional methods like Blu-ray Disc. Look at redundant drives (such as RAIDs)

Drive Technology

Be sure to consider your options when looking at hard drives.

Internal Drive Solutions. Many computers support multiple drive slots. Consider placing a fast SATA drive internally into your computer as a performance disk. Keep this as only a scratch disk and avoid installing application or system files on it.

External and Portable Drive Solutions. There are several different drives available once you've maximized your internal storage. You'll find both single and multiple drive solutions available. Look for units offering connections like FireWire, USB3, or eSATA.

Networked RAIDs. You'll find several professional drives that allow multiple users to connect simultaneously. These solutions are important if you work in a multiple editor environment and need to share projects or assets.

In this DSLR podcast Robbie Carman and Richard Harrington discuss the various frame rates available on today's DSLR Cameras such as the Canon 7D. Learn what rates to use for proper film looks, slow motion and other special effects, PAL or NTSC.
http://podcasts.creativecow.net/dslr-video-podcast/dslr-frame-rates
Subscribe for free at the COW – http://podcasts.creativecow.net/dslr-video-podcast
Subscribe for free on iTunes – http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/creative-cow-dslr-video-podcast/id409873...

When shooting in the field, it's often worth the effort to calibrate your camera. By manually setting your white balance, you increase the chance of proper color. Each camera is a little different (so look up the specifics in your manual). What we want to talk about now is using a consistent source to white balance during both the production and postproduction stages.

Here are two tools that are affordable and portable, and can help you calibrate cameras in the field and double-check color balance in post:

QPcard (www.qpcard.se). A cheap and easy way to address color calibration is to use a fresh calibration card when shooting. One option is the disposable QPcard. Priced at less than $5 per card, this is a great investment in accurate color. Simply use the adhesive strip to adhere one to your clapboard at the start of each day of shooting, and you’ll have a great source for checking color balance in post. With a white, black, and neutral gray surface, it is very easy to use the Three-Way Color Corrector when color correcting. In most cases, it will only take three to calibrate each camera.

Photovision One Shot (www.photovisionvideo.com). This calibration device offers a black, white, and gray stripe to color calibrate. The other side is a white reflector to help bounce light on set. What’s great about it is that it is reusable and can fold to a small size to fit into a camera bag. Various sizes are available, from 6-inch targets to wear around your neck to 34-inch targets for large multicamera events.

Join Richard Harrington, a Director and Editor as he shares practical workflows for DSLR projects. Seems a lot of attention gets spent on shooting DSLR video, but there's a lot more to a complete production. Learn essential planning techniques including planning for storage, synchronization, and gear selection. Rich will also demystify post production with a particular emphasis on native editing. Learn how to transcode less and edit faster (no matter which NLE you choose).
Register here – http://dcfcpug0323.eventbrite.com/event/1372291561Use the code DCDSLR for free admission

Having a good microphone is nearly worthless if you don't put it in the right position. The closer you can get the mic to the source of the audio the stronger the signal. Skimp on taking the time to position and test your mics and you run the risk of noise and hollow sounding audio. Here are a few guiding principles when it comes to microphone placement:

Too far away. Extend your thumb and pinky finger in opposite directions. This is a good target distance for the microphone to be from the mouth of your subject. You can't get this close all the time, but do your best.

Getting too close. While proximity is important, you can get too close. If a microphone is too close to the audio source, the signal can become overloaded and distorted.

Microphone rub. Be careful where you attach a microphone (especially if using a lavaliere mic). Try to avoid having the microphone rub against clothing.

Consider the pickup pattern of the mic. Different microphones have different purposes. Make sure if you’re using an omnidirectional microphone, to place it so it can best capture the “whole” scene. Likewise, if using a shotgun microphone, angle it to capture the directional audio it’s capable of recording.

Video editing is often a collaborative process. You may find that you need to work with someone else’s editing project that was started using Final Cut Pro. Fortunately, Adobe Premiere Pro is a very flexible editing solution. You can easily import projects and media started on other edit systems. For example, moving a project over from Apple Final Cut Pro is a snap.

In Final Cut Pro, mark an In and Out point within a sequence for the range you’d like to export.

Specify a location for the new XML file (such as your project folder) and click OK. The XML file is very small and references the original media on your drive. It will only take a few seconds to write.

Switch to Adobe Premiere Pro and create a new project using a preset that most closely matches the video format you’ve been using.

In Premiere Pro, choose File > Import. Navigate to the XML file you created and click Import. Premiere Pro creates a sequence and adds the media and a report to the project.

DSLR cameras lack actual timecode, which makes it harder to synchronize multiple angles or audio and video sources. This means you'll have to use an audio or visual cue to match your video and audio tracks when recording synced sound to a high quality audio recorder.

Here are a few tips for the field to make editing easier:

Use a clapboard. There's a reason film productions use a clapboard. When picture and sound are recorded to two different systems, it makes it easy to synchronize, because there is a visual and audio cue point. If using multiple cameras, be sure to point all cameras at the clapboard for the initial sync and to re-sync if any camera stops recording. The benefit of using a slate carries through to tapeless acquisition as well. Just place the slate in frame before you roll. Then you can actually see the slate when viewing clips as thumbnails. This will make it easier to identify takes when browsing your Adobe Premiere Pro bins.

Use a slate application. Several applications exist for smart phones that allow you to load information about the production. They can also generate a countdown slate and sync point.

Use an audio sync point. You may need to sync from an audio sync point. Be sure to expand your waveforms in the Premiere Pro timeline so you can see similar patterns. The sync point might be a clap, the start of applause, or the first word of a speech. Just—just find something in common on all tracks.

The world of video is going through a revolution when it comes to pricing. When I started my career, tape decks were more expensive than cars and a complete editing system cost more than my townhouse. Oh how the world has changed.

The video industry is experiencing a race to the bottom. Gear keeps getting cheaper, which is a good thing in many ways. The problem lies in the cost barrier. Just as many photographers been frustrated by every schmo who buys a DSLR thinking he or she is a pro photographer, so have video professionals felt about photographers thinking they are video pros. Add to this sudden influx hundreds of schools pumping out graduates from media programs and you have a cluttered workplace.

I do not say the above to be protectionist or confrontational. The fact is that the video industry needs to evolve and will benefit from fresh talent and fresh ideas. Just don’t piss in the pool after you jump in.

Take a look around you and see what business practices others are following. Here are a few that I wish more would follow for the good of the video industry:

Price fairly – Different businesses will need to charge differently for their services. Still, be sure you price services so you can survive for the long term. Be consistent with your prices and be sure to cover related costs like facilities, insurance, and equipment.

Don’t do spec work – There is a lot of pressure to do unpaid work in the video field. Taking spec jobs to prove capabilities or show interest in a client. Look at other professions, they don’t face these same pressures. If you truly need to expand your portfolio, seek out legitimate nonprofit organizations and make a donation of your time and skill.

Don’t badmouth your competition – Your only true competition is yourself. Speaking ill of your peers will only lower the standards of the industry as a whole.

Your problems are your problems – Always pay your subcontractors (even if you haven’t received client payment). Similarly, you should not accept excuses from others above you in the client chain due to delayed payments. Make sure you responsibly keep payments flowing to those you hire.

Act more like a lawyer and less like an artist – I’m not saying shelve your creativity... but remember that you are a trained professional with a code of conduct. You need to remember the important aspects of client management, professional communication, and ethical business practices if you want to succeed in video for the long term.

Lighting should be your first step, but capturing gorgeous images with DSLRs in low light situations is not only a possibility, but an artistic venture with the amount of control offered by these cameras.

This is the hardest message for most photographers to accept. You cannot truly make a professional video in isolation. Am I saying that one person can’t do everything? No. But can they do it well? Consider the following.

Video projects often have firm deadlines – Whether it’s an air date, a live event, a corporate meeting, or a project launch. Deadlines are standard in the world of video, having a team means bench strength and safety in numbers.

You’ll make more money doing what you do best – How many photographers are magazine publishers? Do they sell the advertisements and write all the stories? What about when publishing a book... do they fire up their personal printing press? The point here is that a photographer should do what they do best. That tends to be direct the talent, pick the locations for shooting, lens the project, and carry their creative vision through the editing and graphics stages. I am not saying you should avoid editing or motion graphics, but you may be pretty slow (especially when you first start). I say try anything three times… but if you find you hate the work or you are turning down other jobs... then its time to move on. You can always find people who want to do parts of the job you are weakest at… plus they’ll likely be far faster than you. This will let you shoot more and line up more business through your contacts.

The creative mind is like a hive – Adding additional people that you trust can really lead to a better product. I find that having other professionals around keeps me from slipping into my old habits. It also leads to creative discussions that push the envelope and lead to a better outcome.

We typically build our production days around a 10-hour schedule. This allows about 7 hours of time for shooting and the other 3 for setup, breaks, and teardown. The important thing here is to pace yourself. Make sure you what you want to accomplish each hour you’re on set so you can measure progress or take corrective action.While we try to maximize the day, we don’t try to kill the crew … there’s a difference:

Make sure you have enough help to load gear in and out so you get off to a good start. For that matter, be sure to use a rolling cart to cut down on wear and tear on your body and speed up moving times between locations.

Be sure to allow time for meal breaks. Keeping people from eating will only make them cranky and less productive. Try to bring some snacks and drinks on the set to keep people comfortable and from wandering off.

Keep the schedule reasonable. We try to not to let the client schedule the first interview for 8:00 a.m. We’ve often had to convey to the client, “If you schedule this for 8:00 a.m., it means we have to leave our houses at 4:30 a.m. in order to have to everything set up on time.”

We routinely have to remind clients that an eight-hour day does not mean eight hours of interviews. We also have to point out that it is a contiguous eight hours. You can’t schedule a crew to start at 9:00 a.m., then give them a five hour break in the middle of the day, and want them tape something that goes until 10:00 at night.

Be sure to work with your clients and gently educate them. Sometimes we’ve had to say, “Yes, we can do this. But we’re going to have two crews and we’re going to have a changeover period here and the second crew will step on to the set and continue into the night.” Be smart: Respect your clients and your crew if you want the best results.

I had a revelation today on how to handle my memory cards while shooting in the field. You see when shooting DSLR video, I can burn through a lot of cards. Plus I typically have a couple of camera angles going off at once. An easy mistake to make (but deadly nonetheless) is reformatting a card that you've already shot to. So here's my surefire plan to keep things straight.

Right Pocket – The right pocket contains all of my empty cards that I wiped before the shoot. All cards are erased before you get on-set so you know if you put the card in and it has something on it, then that's footage that needs to be backed up.

Left Pocket – The left pocket contains all of the cards that have been filled up while shooting.

For video production, the budget is truly king (especially these days). It is important that you create a detailed, line item budget so you have a clear idea of the work involved and the costs associated with the project. Many clients will expect this level of detail in your pricing. You may also find it helpful to share a line item budget with your production team members so they know how much time is budgeted for each task.

Open the fileBudget_Template.xls. You’ll either need Apple Numbers (part of iWork) or Microsoft Excel. The templates are filled in with several standard labor items for video production tasks.

Add rows for tasks as needed since this document is by no means exhaustive. Be sure to add any items you frequently need and delete any items that you never use from the starter template.

Adjust the rates for your services. It is beyond the scope of this book to tell you how to price your services. You should do a little market analysis and see what your competition charges for items as well as look at your own internal costs.

Once the rates and task items match your internal needs, save the document as a Budget Master for your company.

Locate the file on your computer and press Command+I to access its properties.

Select the Stationary Pad and Locked check boxes. Now your master budget cannot be overwritten, and when you double-click it, a new blank budget opens as a clean slate.

When you’re ready to use the budget, double-click the file to open a new budget. Enter the quantity for all items you expect the project to need.

Oftentimes you'll find yourself using more than one camera body while shooting footage. This may be to get an extra angle or to avoid having to change lenses in the field. The closer your camera settings the match, the more seamless it will appear when you edit the different footage together. Ideally the acquired footage will match as closely as possible. This means that you to adjust both the aesthetic and technical properties.

Aesthetic Matching

Look inside the camera and check your menu settings. You'll typically find several options that will aesthetic properties of the footage. Ideally, you'll closely match these settings across multiple cameras:

Color settings – Use the same color space for each camera if it's a choice.

Picture Style – Many cameras offer different modes that stylize the footage. We recommend shooting flat and adjusting your color with Adobe Premiere Pro or After Effects after the shoot for greater flexibility.

Shutter speed – Your shutter speed should typically be 1/60 if shooting 30 fps or 1/50 if shooting 24 fps. You can alter this number for different looks, but be sure the cameras all match.

Technical Matching

You’ll also want to check several technical properties for each camera. Be sure to identically match the following properties across each camera:

Most professional photographers have grown accustomed to the flexibility that shooting with a raw format provides. When coupled with the great control of the Adobe Camera Raw plug-in, they have great control over highlights and shadows as well as the ability to recover exposure problems.

Unfortunately, your DSLR won’t shoot raw when it’s set to video mode. This means its like the old days (note we didn't say good old days) when you had to shoot JPEG. You’ll need to dig back into your past experience (be it film or JPEG) and retrieve the knowledge needed to help you make important decisions during acquisition.

When shooting outdoors, the use of a LCD viewfinder is highly recommended. These devices make it much easier to see a display as well as judge the quality of exposure. By removing all light pollution, you can make accurate decisions.

Just because you’re working with a movie file doesn’t mean all future options are limited. During postproduction, you can further enhance your footage. The first pass is color correction, which addresses issues with color and tone. Optionally, a color-grading pass can also be done to further improve the images with stylized adjustments that affect the mood and tone of the footage and thus develop the story.For more on the fusion of photography and video, check out From Still to Motion.

The Lens Correction filter in Photoshop is an easy way to fix common flaws in an image (such as barrel distortion, lens vignettes, and chromatic aberration). Usually the filter is run on 8 or 16 bits per channel still images. However it can also be run on DSLR video clips.The filter can also correct perspective problems caused by camera tilt. It also automatically looks up lens information from an online database.

A new window opens. Look in the bottom-left corner for information about the camera and lens used for the shot. (This comes with the metadata the camera wrote to the original file.) If you’re using a movie file, this info may be missing. It's a good idea to also shoot a still image on set to capture important metadata for your video clips.

Click the Show Grid check box to make it easier to see perspective issues.

Switch to the Custom tab for advanced controls. Use the Vertical Perspective and the Horizontal Perspective to compensate for keystoning or angled shots. Adjust the Vignette Amount to further brighten or darken the edges.

Click OK to apply the correction.

Because of the complexity of the effect, the video clip won’t play back smoothly. Choose File > Export > Render Video to process the file and create a new clip. Be sure to also save a PSD file for future changes. You can double-click the Lens Correction filter in the Layers panel to open the Smart Filter for future edits.

Into learning more about shooting DSLR video? It turns out you're not alone. My new podcast, Creative COW's DSLR Video show has rocked the charts.

It's always a good feeling to hit the #1 spot on the charts... especially when its filled with people you admire. Thank you all for your support (and if you haven't checked it out, please go fir it – it's free).

In this DSLR podcast Robbie Carman and Richard Harrington discuss the various frame rates available on today's DSLR Cameras such as the Canon 7D. Learn what rates to use for proper film looks, slow motion and other special effects, PAL or NTSC.

Creative COW's DSLR Video podcast brings you video tutorials and training relating to the world of DSLR Cameras. Topics ranging from camera reviews, techniques or discussions and comparisons of various camera models such as Nikon and Canon.

The great blog, Planet 5D has a nice review of our book, From Still to Motion. They had several nice things to say."So, the first question is who is this book designed to help? Obviously from the title, it is aimed at a photographer (either pro or semi-pro) who is wanting to learn to make motion pictures. However, this isn’t a ‘movies for dummies’ book. If you don’t know anything about photography in the first place, you should start with a different set of books and come back to this when you understand more. And, everyone has different skill sets and experience so it can be tough to craft a book to help everyone."

They go on to say:

"I think another big advantage of this book is that it was written by a staff of 7 different people – each with their own skills and expertise with making movies. You don’t get the knowledge of just one expert, but seven! It is almost like getting 7 books."

This is a great event (and your chances of winning a great prize are very high).

DSLR Workflows – From Pre-Production to PostJoin Richard Harrington, a Director and Editor as he shares practical workflows for DSLR projects. Seems a lot of attention gets spent on shooting DSLR video, but there's a lot more to a complete production. Learn essential planning techniques including planning for storage, synchronization, and gear selection. Rich will also demystify post production with a particular emphasis on native editing. Learn how to transcode less and edit faster (no matter which NLE you choose).

Rich is a certified instructor for both Apple and Adobe and offers practical advice for DSLR productions at all stages of a project. Rich will also share thoughts on a modern post workflow including new storage and archival options using Drobo. Rich is the co-author of "From Still to Motion" as well as numerous other books that have shaped the video industry like "Photoshop for Video," "Video Made on a Mac," and "Final Cut Studio On the Spot."

A really savvy editor I know will be hosting an online chat this Monday. He has been making the move from Final Cut Pro to Premiere Pro. Chris has lots of opinions... but they are very well informed. Here are the key details:Chris Fenwick will be our special guest in the planet5D HDSLR chat room on Monday November 29th at 8pm Eastern (02:00 GMT Tuesday). Some of you may know Chris as he has been on the blog before – but he’s recently been cutting some work for Shane Hurlbut, assisting Adobe with teaching folks about moving from Final Cut Pro over to Adobe Premier, and he’s also the co-host on the Digital Convergence podcast on 16x9cinema.com.Chris is an editor and will be coming online to answer any questions you might have about Final Cut Pro, Adobe Premiere or moving from one tool to the other. Chris is a user of both tho is recently advocating for Adobe Premiere because of the ability to edit HDSLR footage without transcoding. He also sent along these videos about switching to Premiere that you might be interested in.

It turns out that a lot of photographers are getting screwed. Photo buyers are demanding video. Clients are expecting professional photographers to just flip a switch in the camera and start delivering great video. Seems the age-old fallacy is kicking in again, just because the same machine can do several things doesn’t mean the operator can do them all well.

That’s not a dig at photographers. My computer has the capacity to do lots of things that I’d never even attempt (let alone sell to my clients). This view is unrealistic and disrespectful. I find it deeply disappointing that talented individuals are being asked to work under conditions that will lead to failure.

How do you fight unrealistic professional situations? Through client-education and personal development seems to work best. I’ve faced similar problems in the past... desktop publishing, nonlinear video editing, heck... even digital photography. All industries continue. But there needs to be changes and compromise... by both the clients and the working professionals.

I believe that education is the key to an industry evolving. That those looking to embrace a new art (as well as those who fear it) would be able to make their best career decisions through an extensive look at this emerging art. I do not judge those standing on the sidelines; rather, I recommend a deep exploration of the possibilities and opportunities.

In video, its important to keep the ratio of how much footage you shoot to how much footage you use as low as possible. This ratio is the biggest influencer on maintaining profit.

More footage means:

more storage – Hard drives cost money

more time searching – Time spent searching for the right shot costs you money

more time loading or transcoding – Even fast machines still take a long while to transcode

I always recommend rehearsing your shot if possible, then firing a few takes. Be sure to cut camera between takes as well so you can have shorter clips. If you're using a slate, hold it up at the start of each shot (then you can clearly see it in the clip thumbnail, which speeds up browsing).

You need to remember time equals money. More time searching means less time editing. More time recorded means more backups and hard drives. Look out for your best interests and you'll see more profitability.

How do you take a great still photo with your video-enabled DSLR camera? That's easy, shoot in photo mode. You'll get the best quality and even the option of using a raw format. But what happens if you've got the perfect shot, except you're in the middle of recording a video clip? The good news is that you can export stills directly from a piece of video. There's just a few limitations.

Resolution limitations of video

You might be thinking to yourself “Isn't video really low resolution?” Yes, when compared to the native size of photos taken with your DSLR, video pales in comparison. But for many uses, such as web or newspaper, you can get enough pixels out. Currently the highest resolution you’ll get exporting a still from a piece of video that originated on a DSLR is 1920 x 1080 or approximately 2.1 megapixels. While you aren’t going to make any panoramic prints of those frames you can still find a lot of great uses for them. If printing at 300 ppi, you can extract a frame that is about 6.5 X 3.5 inches. Read More...

Another way of saying this... audio is king! I can’t emphasize enough recording great sound is essential. Invest in a good audio recorder and plug microphones directly into that. A device like a Zoom H4N is a great dedicated audio recorder. Until DSLR camera manufacturers are will to raise the cost of camera bodies to cover real audio inputs (like XLR connections) you’ll still need to go this route.

Syncing up sound is simple if you use a clapboard (a large spike appears on both the camera audio and the synced sound). You can also use tools like Plural Eyes (available for Final Cut Pro, Sony Vegas, and soon Premiere Pro).

One more important piece of audio advice. Once you’ve edited your video rough cut... close your eyes and just listen to the edit. You should be engaged in the story without the use of visuals or transitions. A good edit works as a solid radio piece... adding pictures and graphics will only make it better.

It’s impossible to know all the answers or even who to ask Fortunately there’s a lot of great forums for interacting with video pros. I offer a few simple pieces of advice when participating forums (the ones I hang out in are at Creative COW).

Lurk a little. Get the hang of the tone and community first. It’s just like a party, don’t walk through the door and start yelling. • Use the search function first. If you ask a question that has already been recently answered recently, you’re going to feel ignored. • Post short questions. Nothing turns off a potential responder than the feeling that they’re taking a graduate school exam. Eight-part essay questions are fun for no one. Keep your questions short and direct. • Give context. Let people know details about the system or gear you’re using, software versions, etc. Even smart geeks aren’t mind readers. • Give a little, get a lot. If you only ask questions in a forum, you’re going to have bad karma. Most forums have unpaid hosts who do their best to answer questions. Helping out is good for the health of the forum and community.

For many, getting footage into their edit application is the easy part. It's getting the footage out that becomes tricky. While each editing application will all have its own unique steps for exporting a project, the process is pretty standard. Use these steps to create a master file.

Identify the final sequence. This sequence should be what is called "picture-locked" meaning that no additional changes will take place to the sequence.

Make sure that the whole sequence is rendered. Click in the timeline and choose Select All, then render the clips.

Mark and In point at the start of the footage you want, then mark an Out point at the end of the range. For most editing tools, you can use the keyboard shortcuts I and O for In and Out respectively.

Look in the file menu or application menu for an option to export the file. Choose this option.

Export the file using the same high quality settings that you were editing with, meaning the same frame size, frame rate and codec.

Save the file to a location of your choosing, keep in mind that the file you export will be large so choose a location that has enough storage space.

After exporting the file you now have your master file that you can make compressions from, pull stills from or archive.

More and more Final Cut editors are using Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 to make them more efficient. If you’re wondering if Adobe Premiere Pro is really worth the switch, join Adobe in this four-part web series featuring Final Cut editors and how and why they use Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.You’ll learn the real story on Adobe Premiere Pro’s Mercury Playback Engine, what it means to edit DSLR footage natively, and how you can remove bottlenecks in your pipeline when working with Adobe After Effects and Photoshop. We’ll follow up the series with a Q&A session so you can get your questions answered.November 16, 2010, 12-1 PM PSTHDSLR editing in Adobe Premiere Pro with Richard HarringtonJoin Richard Harrington, author of From Still to Motion, as he shows you why he uses Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 for editing HDSLR footage. Rich will share his post-production techniques and editing strategies in Adobe Premiere Pro for HDSLR color correction, audio syncing, and camera calibration. You'll discover how to harness the professional-quality tools in CS5 Production Premium to natively edit, color correct, mix audio, and publish to the web and Blu-ray Disc. Register on Facebook: http://on.fb.me/PPro_2

Adobe has reposted my online workshop on how Premiere Pro and Photoshop Extended work together. This is a full 1-hour class and is absolutely free. The original had a few audio issues... this one is totally clean. Enjoy!In this workshop you'll learn post-production techniques to ensure a smooth edit with your HDSLR footage. Learn strategies for color correction, audio syncing, and lens correction. You'll also discover how to browse, load, and quickly organize your footage for editing. Finally, you'll discover how to harness the professional-quality tools in Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 Photoshop Extended CS5 to natively edit, color correct, and publish video.

Seems like we're often being handed MP3 files to use in our video projects. It might be a sound effect or an audio track we've got the rights to use. The problem is that the MP3 format is not very good for video editing (wrong sample rate... rarely works in real-time). Fortunately there's an easy fix... iTunes. If you don’t have access to the original files, you should convert the compressed files to an AIFF file for use in a video editing or motion graphics tool.

Drag the file into iTunes.

Choose iTunes > Preferences, then click on the General button and click the Importing tab.

Choose AIFF and set the sample size to 16 bit and the sample rate to 48kHz. Specify if the file is stereo or mono.

Learn how to shoot better quality video by recording better audio in the field. Discover which microphones, tools, and techniques are best for shooting events or interview footage with your DSLR camera. Find out how to synch your audio and video in Adobe Premiere Pro as well as edit or remove background noise.

There is another handy tool that has showed up in recent years that is a type of mini-dolly. The original camera slider was developed for large movie rigs but has been adapted for smaller cameras like DSLRs. These are very useful for tight spaces where a traditional dolly would not fit.The sliding rods are made of lightweight materials like carbon fiber, aluminum, or chrome-plated steel. The camera plate will have a bowl adaptor to accommodate your fluid head from your tripod. These sliders travel well, and really can add some production value.

Learn the essential settings for lighting and exposure when shooting with DSLR cameras. Find out which lighting tools are available and the benefits of three-point lighting, filters and reflectors. You’ll also discover how to fix lighting problems in DSLR footage using Adobe Premiere Pro.

Learn how to setup your camera correctly for the appropriate white balance, color quality, and recording format. You’ll also discover how to get better focus and create more stable shots when shooting video with your DSLR camera. Find out how to review clips, drop clips into the timeline, and adjust levels, saturation or color in Adobe Premiere Pro.Check out the whole series.

A piece of essential production paperwork is the talent release form. It is generally considered a good idea to obtain a release from each person who appears on camera. The form is your way of proving that the person appeared willingly and does not require additional compensation.To make this form truly binding, you should check with a local lawyer to assist you. Laws will vary based on country and state, so this form is merely provided as a suggestion. Once you have your forms locked in, be sure to print out enough and load them onto a clipboard for your shoot.If you are taping at a large event, you’ll likely want to explore integrating a general release into the event registration or ticket purchase process. This way you don’t need to worry about capturing releases from all the people who appear on camera. However, you should still get the more detailed release signed for on-camera interviews.Get more useful forms (and a whole lot more) by reading Video Made on a Mac

Want to attend the PhotoCine Expo? I've got 50 free passes to the exhibit floor where you can learn all about the DSLR video revolution that's underway. I'll be there with Creative COW and teaching a class on creating Timelapse video. The conference is at the Los Angeles Film School on September 25th and 26th 2010.

Creative TimelapseLearn how to turn your HDSLR into a timelapse machine. With the addition of a few simple pieces of equipment, you can capture dynamic action over time. Even more importantly, you'll learn how to use Adobe Photoshop to develop your files and then assemble them in After Effects. Richard Harrington is the author of Photoshop for Video and the co-author of From Still to Motion: A photographers guide to creating video with your DSLR.

On Tuesday, September 28 at 8 p.m. ET, 5 p.m. PT, join Trey Ratcliff, author of A World in HDR for the next Peachpit Photo Club webcast. High dynamic range (HDR) photography lets you capture the myriad colors and levels of light that you can see in the real world, and the results are amazing photographs that run the gamut from super real to surreal. Explore this fantastic realm of photography through the unique vision of renowned travel photographer Trey Ratcliff. Trey will share his phenomenal HDR photographs as well as all the backstory on the adventurous circumstances of their origin. He'll also reveal the techniques he used to get the final shot, and answer your burning questions!To keep the creative juices flowing, Photo Club members will receive a fun assignment at the end of the session. Once the assignment is completed, Photo Club members can upload their work to the Peachpit Photo Club Flickr Group where Trey and the Peachpit crew will help critique your work. And of course, there will be a chance for prizes! Register now.Also, be sure to check out the From Still to Motion webcast while you are there

If you try to run with a “one-man-band” approach, you’ll likely miss critical action. Be sure to staff appropriately for your shoots.Thanks to shrinking budgets, we are asked to send out one-person crews all the time. Believe us, we’ve tried it (after all, you can’t say you don’t like Brussels Sprouts if you’ve never eaten them). What we’ve found out is that it’s a terrible idea to shoot alone. So many things can go wrong that if you're by yourself it is impossible to get the job done.

Consider the issues a single-person crew would face:

Who will watch the gear if you have to unload and then park?

If you do have to fly somewhere for a shoot, excess baggage charges are often more than a second ticket.

During the course of a shoot, how will you handle basic biological needs like food and restroom breaks? Walk away and leave your gear unattended and it will likely not be in the same condition when you come back.

If you blow a circuit breaker or have talent go missing, the second crew person can resolve the issue.

With a one-person crew, if that person gets sick or injured, the shoot is over.

So even if it just means hiring a warm body that’s not going to steal from you, do so. We’ll contact local grip houses, universities, or in a pinch use Craigslist. Spend the $125 and get somebody to be a babysitter of your gear and a gopher for the many needs that arise on set.Our standard approach is this: We try to use a three-person crew. We send two people from our office and hire one person locally. The local person will usually show up with things like lights and grip gear (which are affordable to rent locally). Our crew shows up with audio and camera equipment, which we know works and we’re familiar with.

Adobe offers some great primers on video technology. be sure to check these free e-books out.

Adobe Digital Video Primer (PDF: 9.8M)Whether you want to understand the differences between analog and digital, how to choose and set up a system that's right for you, or how to prepare and edit your content for delivery in virtually any format, the Adobe Digital Video Primer is a resource you'll use often.

Adobe HD Primer (PDF: 1.6M)This primer will help you understand what's involved in making the transition to authoring and distributing high-definition content and how to get the best results out of that transition.

Adobe Digital Audio Primer (PDF: 84k)In this primer, we'll introduce the basics of sound so you can work more effectively with Adobe® Audition™ and the rest of your digital audio or video toolkit.

Adobe DVD Primer (PDF: 6.3M)This in-depth primer will get you acquainted with DVD technology and teach you how to make your DVD content more dynamic. If you're already creating video productions, it will introduce you to state-of-the-art technologies you can use to repurpose your content for DVD distribution. If you're a beginner you'll find out how you can easily develop and author your own DVDs.

Adobe DV Primer for Creative Professionals (PDF: 392k)Thinking about adding video to your repertoire? If you're a graphic designer, web professional, photographer, or other creative professional and you want to start working with video, this Primer is the place to start. You'll learn how video can expand your creative reach, the basics of the technology, and what you'll need to get started.

Just read a great article over at Creative COW called DSLRs A Time Exposure by Robert Primes. It is a great look at why even Hollywood is in love with HDSLR cameras.

THE INCITING INCIDENT

At some point in the evolution of today's DSLR, digital replaced film, and low light level photography became astonishingly clear. We saw our world in a whole new way. And then a seemingly innocent event occurred that for some would be the beginning of a whole new style, and for others, would be another nail in the coffin of quality cinematography.

Rather than schlep a real movie camera or camcorder around with your still outfit, wouldn't it be convenient if you could just lock the mirror up and shoot motion synced to audio? Canon added the feature to their marvelous 5D Mark II still camera, almost as an afterthought.

Their normally astute marketers calculated that no more than 3 or 4 percent of users would ever use the feature -- perhaps a few wedding photographers and single-person reporting teams.

Here's a great article on cool application for the iPhone and iPad. Twenty-two apps that help video pros and filmmakers.

"The iPad and iPhone have taken the world by storm. Only very recently have filmmakers started to see their potential in a production environment. The iPad has only been out a few months and we are already seeing it used in some very creative ways.

For this feature we have rounded up some of the best and most useful Filmmaking Apps that our Deal Leader Steve Jobs has approved for the App Store. As more filmmakers explore the possibilities with these powerful mobile devices, we are sure this list will continue to grow"Get the whole article here – http://filmmakeriq.com/2010/07/22-filmmaking-apps-for-the-ipad-iphone/

If you have to shoot your panoramic images without a tripod, you’ll need to adjust your handheld shooting technique.

Try wrapping the camera strap around your elbow. This allows you to place tension on the strap so it is taut. The tension is a useful way to constrain the camera movement and make it more an extension of your body.

Hold the camera in front of your body so its strap hangs downward.

Slip your arm through the strap so it goes just past your elbow.

Wrap your hand around the outside edge of the strap and grab the camera body.

Press your elbow into the strap to increase tension on the strap and stabilize the camera.

To pan the camera smoothly, you’ll need to properly position your body.

Square your body up with your subject.

Spread your feet shoulder-width apart.

Rotate at the waist and twist body while keeping your shoulders and camera in close to your body.

Learn how to create Timelapse movies with your DSLR camera and Adobe After Effects. Join Richard Harrington as he shows you how to create pans and zooms while controlling the speed of the shot as well.

From the book and DVD "From Still to Motion: A photographers guide to creating video with your DSLR."

By their very nature, lenses add distortion to the images they capture. I've posted a new tutorial over at TipSquirrel.com that addressed how to fix lens distortion for both stills and video.

“One of the commands in Photoshop CS5 that received a major makeover is the Lens Correction command. It’s no longer buried, rather it sits proudly near the top of the filter menu. Adobe now ties the filter to specific lenses in the file’s metadata. You can even create your own lens profiles with a great utility. Visit http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/lensprofile_creator/ for full details.”

If you missed the free e-seminar on using Adobe Creative Suite for DSLR video, you can check it out here. We cover Premiere Pro, After Effects, Photoshop, and Bridge. Be sure to check out the part on using Photoshop to color grade video files nondestructively. I'm also amazed at Premiere Pro's ability to handle native DSLR video with no transcoding or rendering (good stuff!).

We focus a lot on DSLR video, but all video pros and photographers will learn something. You can watch the class here online (give it a minute to load).

How do you take a great still photo with your video-enabled DSLR camera? That's easy, shoot in photo mode. You'll get the best quality and even the option of using a raw format. But what happens if you've got the perfect shot, except you're in the middle of recording a video clip? The good news is that you can export stills directly from a piece of video. There's just a few limitations.Resolution limitations of videoYou might be thinking to yourself “Isn't video really low resolution?” Yes, when compared to the native size of photos taken with your DSLR, video pales in comparison. But for many uses, such as web or newspaper, you can get enough pixels out. Currently the highest resolution you’ll get exporting a still from a piece of video that originated on a DSLR is 1920 x 1080 or approx 2.1 megapixels. While you aren’t going to make any panoramic prints of those frames you can still find a lot of great uses for them. If printing at 300 ppi, you can extract a frame that is about 6.5 X3.5 inches – in fact a lot of the figures that you’ve see in this book are from video clips. Read More...

Working with DSLR Video with Adobe CS5 Production PremiumWednesday, May 26, 2010 — 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM US/PacificThanks to their exceptional image quality, low-light capabilities, and the fact that you can shoot using standard 35mm DSLR lenses that give your footage the look of expensive film-based cameras, DSLRs are finding their way into video productions at all levels.

Join Richard Harrington, co-author of From Still to Motion: A photographer's guide to creating video with your DSLR. He'll explore the options for creating and working with DSLR video in CS5 Production Premium which includes Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Premiere Pro, and Adobe After Effects. You’ll learn everything from practical shooting techniques and essential lighting to easy editing strategies and online sharing. You’ll also be introduced to the latest Dell Precision workstation and NVIDIA Quadro graphic solutions to help you make the best decision to outfit your editing needs – including taking advantage of the latest performance improving updates in CS5.

I was a recent guest on Digital Photo Experience Episode 11. Be sure to check out the show.

This is Episode number 11 of the Digital Photo Experience Podcast with Rick Sammon & Juan Pons.We hope you enjoy the episode, and if you do, we would greatly appreciate it if you could give us a positive rating on iTunes. Hey, it only takes a minute!To get the enhanced version of the podcast with images and chapter markers, subscribe to the podcast via iTunes here: DPExperience Podcast on iTunes

Peachpit press is giving away FIVE copies of the brand new book, From Still to Motion: A photographer's guide to creating video with your DSLR. The contest runs THIS FridaPrizes

How to Play

Follow @Peachpit (only followers are eligible). We’ll send a direct message (DM) to the winner, so you must be following us to find out if you won. (If you’re not on Twitter yet, just go to http://www.twitter.com and click the “get started – join!” button.)

Stay tuned on Friday. Throughout the day, we’ll let you know which prize we’re giving away and the number of response you need to be to win. (For example: “#FRIDAYFREEBIES: Autographed copy of A World in HDR! Be the 7th person to tweet to @Peachpit w/hashtag #FridayFreebies to win!”)

To enter, just send a message to @Peachpit with the hashtag #FridayFreebies and include the special key word (revealed in the video) in your tweet.

Be sure the check out the Peachpit Photo Club

Don't miss the Peachpit Photo Club. It's held on the third Tuesday of every month, from 8 to 9 p.m. EST (5 to 6 p.m. PST). It's a webcast featuring your favorite digital photographers, such as Scott Kelby, Chase Jarvis, Chris Orwig, Joe McNally, David duChemin, and many more!

The debut Peachpit Photo Club features Scott Kelby on Tuesday, March 16 at 8 p.m. EST! During this live webcast, photographer and bestselling author Scott Kelby will present some of his work, provide you with some insight and inspiration, and answer your burning questions!Then I'll be up with my co-authors on the new book "From Still to Motion." Join us April 20 8PM EST.

In this video you’ll learn to rank and sort images in Aperture. You’ll also learn about contact sheets and Web galleries for client review. You can also visit the website www.peachpit.com/videomac in order to download sample files.

Here's the Podcast – DIGITAL CONVERGENCE EPISODE 6Episode 6 features Richard Harrington and Robbie Carman, who are two of four of the co-authors of the new book from Peachpit: From Still to Motion.

In this episode, Rich Harrington and Robbie Carman talk about what to expect from their new book. Taking a platform agnostic approach and covering a wide range of budgets, they discuss a broad range of topics including unexpected lessons learned, do-it-yourself lighting, camera support and motion, post-production and color grading, sound, stop-motion and time-lapse and a wealth of other topics. I hated to cut short this conversation - it's our longest episode yet. But it's well worth hearing.

Peachpit talks to James Ball, Robbie Carman, Matt Gottshalk, and Richard Harrington about their new book and DVD, From Still to Motion, what photographers struggle with the most when learning video, and how to stay up to date on the latest in the world of video.

Peachpit: What was the motivation behind writing From Still to Motion? Why this topic, and why now?

Authors: We've been thinking about and actively working on the book for more than a year. When we first starting seeing video-enabled DSLR cameras we were excited by their potential. They can be challenging to work with, but have great rewards with incredible visuals.

We decided there needed to be a definitive book and DVD that explored the entire process of using these cameras (from pre-production through delivery), and one that explored both the art and the technology. Camera models and features constantly change, but the process of creating video is relatively constant and we felt there needed to be thorough coverage on how to create video with a DSLR camera. What we've created is an in-depth case study that explores how we used these cameras for six months and all the cool things we learned along the way.

I've been quite happy with Aperture 3, but like many of you... I looked forward to the first update to address minor bugs. Well it's here! Apple released two updates: Aperture 3.0.1 which has several bug fixes and a digital camera update to add support for several camera models.

About Aperture 3.0.1This update improves overall stability and addresses a number of issues in Aperture 3, including:

Upgrading libraries from earlier versions of Aperture

Importing libraries from iPhoto

Importing photos directly from a camera

Memory usage when processing heavily-retouched photos

Face recognition processing

Adding undetected faces using the Add Missing Face button

Printing pages containing multiple images

Printing photos and contact sheets with borders and metadata

Editing photos using an external editor

Display of images with Definition and Straighten adjustments applied

Zooming photos in the Viewer and in the Loupe using keyboard shortcuts

Accessing Aperture libraries on a network volume Selecting and moving pins on the Places map

Adding and editing custom locations using the Manage My Places window

Switching between masters when working with RAW+JPEG pairs.

The Digital Camera update also added several new cameras to Aperture and iPhoto.

With Aperture 3, Apple has fully embraced video acquired on DSLR cameras. In fact, you can now manage video and audio files as easily as any other image in your library. If you are used to using Aperture as part of your photo editing workflow, you'll find the addition of audio and video support quite welcome.

Importing Video

Video and audio files are added to your library in the same manner as any other image. You can import files directly from a memory card or from a hard drive. It is important to decide where you want to store the files before you import them. Follow these steps to choose a location and import your files:1. Select a project or album then click the Import Files button in the toolbar.2. Navigate to the desired files in the File Browser at the bottom of the main window (this can be files that already exist on hard drive or a memory card).

3. Select the check boxes for the desired clips. You can also click the Check All or Uncheck All buttons at the top of the window.

4. In the right column, choose a destination for the files. Specify where you want the files to be located in Aperture:

Click a project or folder in the Library pane to target it.

Choose New Project from the Destination menu to create a new project to hold the imported items.

5. Specify the media management approach you'd like to use. Click the Store Files menu and choose one of these options:

In the Aperture Library moves the files into a managed library. These files can be exported but will be copied to a new location.

In their current location leaves the files where they are located. This is the best approach if you've already copied your video files to an editing drive.

Your User folder is available (and is labeled with your default name).

The Pictures folder in your home directory is another option.

Choose lets you specify another location. This option works well when you want to target a specific drive (such as your project's media drive). The Choose option can be used to copy the media from the camera memory to an editing location.

6. Click Imported Checked when you’re ready to add the files to your project. The files are then added to your library.

"OK, it’s two weeks and one day, but you get the idea. The $100 early bird registration deadline is coming up, and if you want to join us in Orlando on March 24-26 for the world’s largest Photoshop training event, (and do it on the cheap) you can sign up or just get more details right here (By the way: if you’re a NAPP member, you can get a full conference pass for only $499 using that early bird discount)."

The EOS E1 video plug-in takes advantage of Final Cut Pro’s powerful Log and Transfer feature, which allows users to select and mark the video directly while it is still on the camera, add custom metadata and ingest the clips in the background so the editing can begin immediately.

A fascinating documentary on Ray Harryhausen who is a prolific stop motion animator. Some of his work you may have seen includes The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, Jason and the Argonauts, and Clash of the Titans.

Just got an email from the Center for Environmental Filmmaking which is offering a $1,000 prize.

They are running a contest for filmmakers to create a short, funny video for YouTube which communicates a clear message that strongly motivates a specific behavior change (for example, driving a fuel efficient car, turning down thermostats, or donating to a conservation cause).

Submissions must:

Be humorous!

Address a critical environmental issue

Be an original production

Reach a broad audience beyond just environmentalists

Be less than 4 minutes

Submissions are due by March 1, 2010. The winner will be announced at American University on Tuesday, March 23 at the DC Environmental Film Festival.

Thanks a lot to Frederick Johnson and Alex Lindsay for having me on This Week in Photography. It's a great show al about photography and related technology. From taking photos of the family to understanding how cameras work to testing state-of-the-art equipment, you'll hear it all on This Week in Photography.

You can hear it on iTunes or on the web – http://www.pixelcorps.tv/twip124A wrap-up of CES and some of the cool, photography-related product announcements...an interview with HDR expert Tray Ratcliff...and a special guest host, digital-imaging expert Richard Harrington, joins the fray.

This short film was shown to me yesterday by Alex Lindsay and Frederick Johnson when I was visiting for This Week in Photography. It's a beautiful documentary about a man who loses his dog to cancer. The whole piece was produced with a Canon 7D. What I like about it is that the filmmaker truly shows an intimate moment (and one I can relate to as a dog lover). The smaller cameras these days (that can shoot in lower light) are letting us tell stories we never good before.I present Last Minutes with ODEN

When shooting a scene, you'll typically favor getting multiple shots. This process is referred to as getting coverage. Just as a single photo can say so much, combining multiple angles together can tell the story better (letting you show interesting details or emotions). This process is important because it allows for more flexibility in editing. You can choose to condense, action, cover mistakes, or even direct the viewer's attention with a variety of shot types. These shots have a language of their own. Knowing the most common shot types lets crew members talk to each other.

Wide Shot (WS) – A wide shot (also called an establishing shot) is useful to show the entire subject. With a person, this usually means seeing from the top of their heads to the bottom of their feet.

Mixed lighting makes it tough to get accurate color.Whenever we move a camera, change lighting, or switch scenes, a reference card or target is called for. It should have pure black, pure white, and middle grey on it. This will make it easier to color correct your footage during postproduction. Using a reference target on set allows you to move at a faster pace without fear. Read More...

It's always nice to get name-checked on Scott Kelby's blog (he is the number one technology author in the world after all).

"Just Released: “Editing Video Shot With Your DSLR” Online Class

Video guru, photographer, and Photoshop World instructor Richard Harrington just released a new online class at Kelby Training Online called Editing Your DSLR Video on a Mac, and it answers so many questions about this booming new area of creativity for photographers. If you’ve got a DSLR that shoots video, you’ve got to catch Rich’s class (here’s the link)."Thanks Scott – He called me a photographer... guess I'm moving up in the world =)

The RØDE mic significantly extends pickup for the camera. This is the Rode VideoMic with PG1 Pistol Grip. We've also added the DeadCat Windshield.There are several manufacturers that make external microphones that are designed to be attached to your camera. Manufacturers like RØDE offer specialty microphones mount on your hot shoe. The microphones can be plugged into the “mic” port on your camera.

I've launched a new Facebook group for those interested in DSLR video.The page serves two purposes.1. I'll share what we're learning about DSLR Video.2. I'll let you know things about the new book and DVD I'm developing.

I spent the day in New York city at the 2009 Photo Plus Expo show. It was just a one day trip (thanks Amtrak Acela). I went up for lots of reasons, but here's some of the gear I saw that looked interesting.

This seems to be the perfect box for creatives who need data redundancy. You can place up to 8 drives in the rack (adding them as you go and even mixing and matching sizes). Current drive capacities mean you can store 16TB, but the Drobo folks tell me 3 TB drives are just around the corner (which means 24TB in a rack). .

What's also nice is that you get two options of data redundancy. The Drobo can have protectio so one or two drives can fail and your data is still safe.

The Drobo also offers three interface connections:

FireWire 800

USB 2.0

iSCSI (utilizes Gigabit Ethernet)

It's iSCSI that promse some great options for perfomance.

What I also like is that the Drobo Pro can be rackmounted or placed on a desk.

a big fan of my Hoodman HoodLoupe to make it easier to view the monitor on the back of a DSLR camera. With the new HoodEYE you can upgrade your loupe. It offers an oversized eyecup with a temple flair – this helps seal of light when viewing outdoors. I am particularly interested as we are exploring using loupes like viewfinders for shooting video on DSLR cameras. Having the extraeyecup really does make a difference, but it is a very personal choice.

Installation as an upgrade took only a minute, you can also order a new loop with the modified eyepiece include. They're also offering straps so you can attach the viewfinder. I'm up in the air on this one (compared to a Zacutto viewfinder). This is a much more affordable approach. I do prefer this loop (as a director) so its easier to go aroudn and check cameras, we'll try it as an active viewfinder next week and wil let you know how it does.

problem with mosts optical media (like CDs and DVDs) is that over time that start to deteriorate. Most discs use a dye to indicate where data is written. This process is called data rot, and it can happen with optical media at any point. Higher wuality discs are less likely, but cheaper discs can happen sooner. The exact point that this occurrs is unknown because the media gives no indicator of a problem.

Millenniata has tried to solve this with their Write Once, Read Forever. The discs are based upon obsidian stone (and I tried to get more out of them.. but trade secrets). The burners use more energy to burn and the surface of the disc is MUCH harder. The results are a disc that is etched (as opposed to just using dye)

While its not a cheap solution, (around $1800 list price for the drive and starter pack) the Millenniata folks are offering optical media that looks the test of time. The discs are also much better able to withstand temperature and physical damage. What's also great is the media is backwards compatible once burned, so you can burn with their special burner, then hand off to a client. They also promise to soon have specialty discs so you can print on the label face.

and a photog who's jumped in head first to the DSLR video market. He's made a folow focus kit that makes it much easier to control focus when shooting video on a DSLR. The device is less complex than other units, as it uses a skateboard style wheel that makes gentle contact with the existing rubber rings on a camera. I played with it hands on and it looks worth testing.

It currently only works with Cannon lenses (although I am willing to try and make it work with Nikon)

This little beauty can mount on the camera hot show and give you a threaded mount. This will be perfect to attach an audio recorder to the top of my camera for DSLR Cinema projects. You can mount a variety of audio or video hardware directly to the camera. You can also rotate the mounting plate to a better angle as needed (works well if attaching a light or monitor).

The folks over at Delkin Devices have comeout with an affordable mount for DSLR cameras.

The Fat Gecko is a dual suction cup mount that can be adhered to a smooth, non-porous surface (like mirrors, cars, airplanes.) It appears rugged, but is still very cost affordable (I would still recommend using a safety chain... but I am paranoid when it coms to gear and insurance).

Canon announced today their plans for adding 24P video to the popular 5D Mark II camera. Here's the press release (with my comments in italics).

Canon today announces that it is currently developing a firmware update to the EOS 5D Mark II to enable the recording of high definition 1080p video at 24 and 25fps.

This is good news.... but no mention of shooting at 60P in 720 mode like the 7D. That is more exciting to me for the options for slow motion effects.

The decision to develop new firmware to support these features has been taken following feedback received from cinematographers and photographers.

Can you say overwhelming feedback, forum posts, and blog posts. Wow... nice to see some companies actually listen to their customers.

Introduced in September 2008, the multi award-winning EOS 5D Mark II was the first DSLR product to offer full frame 1080p HD video recording, opening up a multitude of new creative possibilities for photo journalists, news photographers and amateur filmmakers.

Amateur... PLEASE. Could companies please stop talking down to their audiences. The camera and proper lenses and gear is a minimum $7,000 investment. That's not amateur. Also... can anyone tell me the difference between a photo journalist and a news photographer?

Since then, Canon has continued to develop its groundbreaking EOS Movie functionality, firstly with the firmware update to the EOS 5D Mark II that enabled manual exposure control, and more recently by introducing a choice of video recording frame rates with the EOS 7D and EOS-1D Mark IV

Both nice cameras and worth exploring. We're writing a book and shooting a music video right now with the 7D and 5D. We'll let you know about the process more soon..

Canon currently expects the firmware update to be made available during the first half of 2010. An announcement regarding details of the update and its availability will be made closer to the release date.

So please stop complaining... and asking us when... oh and first quarter means March 31... or maybe NAB in April.

Are you capturing video with your DSLR video camera? My new training video just launched over at Kelby Training.

Editing Your DSLR Video on a Mac

Your DSLR shoots video! Cool right!? Now what? You've probably got more video than you know what to do with. Richard Harrington created this course to help you with how to edit that video footage (using Mac software). Rich covers everything from in-the-field tips all the way to post-production techniques using Final Cut Pro, Final Cut Express and iMovie

Leave it to Disney to release something visually stunning. This is a great example of tilt shift photography and timelapse animation at the same time.

"See the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World in Florida from a whole new perspective. The exclusive video first featured on The Disney Parks Blog was created from a series of photos snapped inside the Magic Kingdom Park. Its a sunrise-to-sunset story told without words."

In case you missed it, Nikon announced an upgrade to their top product line. A new model, the D3s is coming soon. The camera looks to be a great upgrade, although for video lovers it's still using Motion JPEG compression (which is much grainier than H.264). The camera does over several other improvements that make it a nice upgrade.